There have been no foreign casualties or fatalities in the car ramming attack in the southern Chinese city of Zhuhai, the Chinese foreign ministry said.
“The Chinese government has been and will continue to take effective measures to ensure people’s lives and social stability,” ministry spokesperson Lin Jian told a press briefing.
“As always, China will earnestly protect the safety of all foreigners in China and Chinese and foreign enterprises,” he said.
Later, authorities in the southern city of Zhuhai removed wreaths, candles and bottles of alcohol, offerings laid at the scene of the deadliest mass killing in the country in a decade, as the government scrambled to respond and censor the outrage online.
On Monday, a male driver angry at his divorce settlement rammed his car into a crowd at a sports centre in the city of 2.5 million, killing 35 people and injuring 43, but the government took almost a day to announce the death toll.
This prompted an outrage on Chinese social media, where posts complaining about the government’s slow response and raising questions about the mental health of a nation shaken by a recent spate of similar killings, were being quickly removed.
After initially allowing journalists to briefly speak to the people laying the flowers, a handful of security personnel told reporters not to talk to the people or to film messages on the bouquets.
The attack happened as Zhuhai captured China’s attention with the People’s Liberation Army’s largest annual airshow, where a new stealth jet fighter is on display for the first time.
While there is no indication that the two events are related, Chinese people often pick large national events with round-the-clock media coverage in an attempt to circumvent the tight censorship and highlight their grievances.
This was the second such incident to occur during the Zhuhai airshow: in 2008, at least four people were killed and 20 injured when a man drove a truck into a crowded schoolyard during the airshow.
Police said that the attacker had been seeking revenge over a traffic dispute. — Reuters
