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Residents of a southern Chinese city mourn the 35 people killed in a car ram attack

Vaseline1 week ago

1 2 minutes read

Residents of a southern Chinese city mourn the 35 people killed in a car ram attack

Ng Han Guan, Emily Wang Fujiyama and Huizhong Wu
| Associated press

Zhuhai, China – People in a southern Chinese city paid respects on Wednesday to 35 residents killed by a driver who crashed his vehicle into a sports complex and mowed down people as they exercised.

Police have provided little information about the 62-year-old attacker other than to say the man, identified only by his surname Fan, was angry about his divorce settlement. He was arrested immediately after the attack as he tried to flee the scene in the city of Zhuhai on Monday evening.

The attack, which also seriously injured 43 people, took place on the eve of the Zhuhai Airshow, sponsored by the People’s Liberation Army and held every two years. China often makes extra efforts to tightly control information surrounding major or sensitive events.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, Zhuhai residents laid flowers in honor of the victims outside the Zhuhai People’s Fitness Plaza in southern Guangdong province. Police presence was small, although the number of officers later increased. The sports complex was closed until further notice.

The police allowed the public to leave bouquets near the entrance to the sports complex, but volunteers then quickly moved the flowers inside the sports center.

“May there be no villains in heaven,” one of the bouquets read. “Good deeds will be rewarded and bad deeds will be punished.”

Chinese authorities are cautious about what is said publicly about major catastrophes or violence, often censoring eyewitness accounts. It took almost 24 hours after the attack before information on the final number of victims was released.

Videos, which were quickly censored within China, circulated outside the Great Firewall. Most were posted by “Teacher Li,” an artist-turned-dissident who has an X account with 1.7 million followers that posts crowdsourced videos about news in China.

Articles from Chinese media featuring interviews with survivors were quickly removed on Monday and Tuesday. One of the articles stated that among the many injured were elderly people who had joined race walking groups.

Residents of Zhuhai were still processing news of the attack.

“It’s very shocking,” Dong Chilin said. “My husband goes jogging there every evening. I called him immediately. … Luckily, none of the people I know were there that day.”

She said her two children asked their father to stay away for the time being.

Another woman, who gave only her surname Guan, said she passed the spot around 8pm on Monday evening but thought it was just a traffic accident. “This was of course very shocking. It was very terrible.”

Police said their preliminary investigation showed Fan was unhappy with his divorce settlement, but provided no further information about his divorce or alleged motive.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping called for strict punishment under the law in a statement on Tuesday evening.

He also urged all local governments to “strengthen prevention and … avoid extreme cases, and resolve conflicts and disputes in a timely manner,” the official Xinhua news agency said.

Wu reported from Bangkok.

Vaseline1 week ago

1 2 minutes read

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