Thirty-five people were killed and 43 others were injured in Zhuhai, a town in southern China, after a car drove into a crowd on Monday evening, local police announced on Tuesday.
An attack “serious” et “vicious”, deplore local authorities. At least 35 people were killed and 43 others injured Monday evening after a car plowed into a crowd of people exercising outside a stadium in Zhuhai, southern China, it said. the police in a press release published this Tuesday, November 12. Chinese media reported that many elderly people, as well as teenagers and children, were among the injured. Their vital prognosis is not engaged.
According to the BBC, a 62-year-old man named Fan is accused of driving a small SUV into a barrier and into the Zhuhai sports center, hitting numerous civilians, while the main Chinese civil and military air show takes place in the city. The driver was then arrested while stabbing himself “and was sent to the hospital for treatment,” inform the police. He is now in a coma and “is not fit to undergo interrogation”, adds the same source. But according to initial investigations, the terms of the man's divorce, and in particular the question of the division of his property, would have motivated his attack.
Xi Jinping says he is doing “whatever is necessary” to treat the injured
Most videos of the incident posted by eyewitnesses have since been removed from Chinese social media, but some images still circulating online show many people lying on the ground being tended to by rescue workers and bystanders. According to a witness on site, interviewed by the Chinese news magazine Caixinat least six groups of people had gathered at the stadium for their usual walk when the incident occurred. “The car looped and people were injured in all areas of the race track – east, south, west and north,” another witness also said.
In the wake of the attack, Chinese President Xi Jinping called for “everything necessary” to treat the injured, and hoped that the perpetrator would be “punished according to law”. The Japanese embassy in China has warned Japanese nationals, asking them to “refrain from speaking loudly in Japanese and avoid provocative and attention-grabbing behavior, such as forming noisy groups.”
This attack comes as the country experiences a series of violent attacks in recent weeks. In October, a man killed three people and injured 15 in a stabbing attack at a Shanghai supermarket. Earlier, in September, a Japanese schoolboy was stabbed in the southern city of Shenzen and died of his injuries, sparking a strong reaction from Tokyo. And in July, a vehicle drove into passers-by in the central city of Changsa, killing eight people.
Update : at 2:30 p.m., with more details on the attack
