Man in China Who Drove Car Into Crowd, Killing 35, Was Upset About Divorce, Police Say

ZHUHAI, China — A man who authorities said was upset over his divorce settlement rammed his car into a crowd of people exercising at a sports complex in southern China, killing 35 and severely injuring dozens of others, police said Tuesday.

Police detained the 62-year-old man, who is being treated for wounds thought to be self-inflicted, shortly after the attack Monday night in Zhuhai. The city is hosting the People’s Liberation Army’s aviation exhibition, which opened Tuesday, and searches for what happened were heavily censored for users behind China’s Great Firewall. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]

Outside of the controls, however, videos circulated on the social media platform X. In several, dozens of people could be seen lying on the track at the sports complex, which is regularly used by hundreds of residents to run, play soccer or dance.

In one, shared by news blogger and dissident Li Ying, a woman says “my foot is broken.” That same video showed a firefighter performing CPR on a person, as others were told to leave. Li, who is known on X as Teacher Li, posts daily news based on user submissions.

In addition to the 35 people killed, police said 43 were injured.

Police set up barricades barring people from entering the sports complex Tuesday. Members of the public left bouquets by an adjacent square instead.

China has seen a number of attacks in which suspects appear to target members of the public at random.

In October, a man was detained after he allegedly attacked children with a knife at a school in Beijing. Five people were wounded. In September, three people were killed in a knife attack in a Shanghai supermarket, and 15 others were injured. Police said at the time that the suspect had personal financial disputes and came to Shanghai to “vent his anger.”

In May, two people were killed and 21 injured in a knife attack in a hospital in Yunnan province.

Police identified the man detained in Monday’s attack only by his family name of Fan, as is typical, and said he was unconscious and receiving medical care after being found in his car with a knife and wounded.

He was dissatisfied with the split of financial assets in his divorce, according to a preliminary investigation, police said.

Chinese authorities appeared to be tightly controlling information about the incident. Internet censors tend to take extra care to scrub social media ahead of and during major events, such as the aviation exhibition or the annual meeting of the National People’s Congress.

For almost 24 hours after the attack, it was unclear what the death or injury toll was. On Tuesday morning, a search on the Chinese social media platform Weibo for the sports center turned up just a few posts, with only a couple referring to the fact something had happened, without pictures or details. Articles by Chinese media from Monday night about the incident were taken down.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping called for the “strict” punishment of the perpetrator according to law, in a statement Tuesday evening.

He also called on all local governments “to strengthen prevention and control of risks at the source, strictly prevent extreme cases from occurring, and to resolve conflicts and disputes in a timely manner,” according to the official Xinhua news agency.

—Wu reported from Bangkok. Associated Press reporters Elsie Chen and Didi Tang contributed from Washington, and researcher Yu Bing contributed from Beijing.