35 people have been killed when a driver plowed into crowds at a sports center in China

HONG KONG – Thirty-five people were killed and another 43 injured when a driver deliberately drove his car into a crowd outside a sports center in southern Hong Kong. Chinapolice said Tuesday.

A 62-year-old man was arrested at the scene after he rammed his small SUV into people training at the Zhuhai Sports Center late Monday, the Zhuhai Public Security Bureau said. said in a statementwho called the incident “serious and brutal.”

Police identified the man by his last name, Fan. He was in a coma after wounding himself with a knife in his car, police said, adding that he was still receiving treatment and could not be questioned.

According to the police, Fan was dissatisfied with the division of assets after his divorce, according to an initial investigation.

Fan is now under criminal custody. The 43 people injured in the incident are now in a non-life-threatening condition, police said.

Videos geolocated by NBC News show people lying on the ground covered in blood near the sports center, with some people wailing.

In a relatively rare move, Chinese President Xi Jinping called for Fan to be “severely punished in accordance with the law.” State media Xinhua News reported this.

Following Xi’s instructions, a central government working group has been sent to the site to guide and oversee response efforts, according to Xinhua.

The incident took place on the eve of the air show in Zhuhai, the country’s largest aerospace trade fair China debuted the J-35A jet aircraftthe latest model of stealth fighter jet.

News of the death toll sent shockwaves through Chinese social media, although the topic only ranked 11th on Weibo, China’s X-like platform, which is subject to strict internet censorship.

“I’m completely speechless, other than shocked. I need a moment of silence to calm myself down,” one person wrote on Weibo.

China has recently seen a number of attacks against civilians, including children foreigners.

In September, a bus crushed a group of students and parents outside a school in eastern Shandong province, killing at least 11 people.

The same month, a 10 year old Japanese boy was killed after being stabbed on the way to a Japanese school in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen.

In October, on the eve of the 75th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, three people were killed and 15 others were injured in a knife attack at a supermarket in Shanghai.