A local man looks at flowers laid outside the scene of the deadly attack in Zhuhai on Wednesday. - Photo: AP
ZHUHAI, China (SCMP): The car attack that killed dozens of people in the southern Chinese city of Zhuhai was “like an earthquake”, according to one survivor who described how the SUV rammed into a group of people from behind while they were exercising.
Local police said on Tuesday night that 35 people had been killed and 43 injured in the incident that has shocked the country.
A 47-year-old local man, who asked only to be identified by his surname Chen, said on Wednesday that he had been exercising with a group of walkers at a fitness and running trail outside a local sports stadium at the time of the attack on Monday night.
Chen only escaped because he was on the edge of the group but if he had been in his usual place in the middle he may not have survived.
He told the Post that hundreds of walking enthusiasts from six different groups went there most nights to exercise and estimated there were around 300 people there at the time.
At around 7.30pm, the group began walking along the trail, but after less than 20 minutes, they heard a sound like “a rock falling from a mountain”, as the SUV rushed towards them “without slowing down”.
A screengrab from a video shows a car moments before it rammed into a group of people on the road outside a sports centre in Zuhai, Guangdong province, China on Nov 11, 2024. - Photo: Reuters
“I felt like it sounded like an earthquake, the car rushed over, (travelling at) 70 to 80kmh, very fast,” he said.
“We were walking forward, and we didn’t expect the car to come from behind.”
Chen escaped the car by jumping into the shrubbery beside the track, but most of his companions were closer to the middle of the group, his usual place, and did not have time to get out of the way.
“I still don’t understand how he rushed in,” Chen added, saying vehicles are not allowed in that area.
He said that more than 40 members of his exercise group had been there at the time and 11 of them had been killed, with two still unaccounted for.
The victims included people of all ages and from many walks of life, Chen said.
The authorities have not released a list of the victims.
Videos and pictures circulating on social media since Monday night showed that the victims also included people who were not using the exercise track at the time.
“I don’t understand why someone would want to kill so many people,” said Chen.
Another resident named Lai described the scene of the attack as “terrifying” and said the incident was “really painful”.
He had gone there because he knew his mother, who was unhurt, regularly went to dance sessions there.
“I have lived in the city for 30 years and suddenly something like this happens. I find it hard to accept,” Lai added.
Many Zhuhai residents are in shock and mourning the dead, with local media reporting long queues at blood donation stations since the attack.
On Tuesday night the Post witnessed residents, including some delivery workers, helping people from other cities to lay flowers at the stadium.
A police auxiliary said the flowers would be taken to a newly set up mourning hall, which only relatives of the victims could enter.
A police officer keeps watch as people remove flower bouquets placed outside the sports centre where a deadly car attack took place, in Zhuhai, Guangdong province, China Nov 13, 2024. - Photo: Reuters
On Wednesday the sports complex had been temporarily closed with plain-clothes police and security personnel standing guard outside.
The police were also stopping the media from taking pictures outside the stadium gates and removing flowers brought by the public, telling people at the site to “think of the big picture” because there were “hostile foreign forces with malicious intentions” at the site.
Hospitals where the injured were being treated were also heavily guarded and the media were denied access, although Chen said members of his exercise group were allowed to visit their injured friends.
Some reports by citizen journalists briefly circulated on social media before being deleted by censors.
One of the reports quoted an eyewitness as saying: “Luckily it’s Monday, otherwise many minors could have been killed or injured.”
A photo album published by the Chinese media outlet Caixin on Wednesday showing Zhuhai residents laying flowers outside the sports centre was deleted for unknown reasons.
Police have said the attack was carried out by a 62-year-old named Fan who was motivated by anger about his divorce settlement. They said the suspect tried to kill himself with a knife after the attack and has been in a coma since then.
Some social media users have questioned how the police can be sure of his motives while the suspect is in a coma and others have asked why the authorities waited a whole day before releasing details of the incident.
President Xi Jinping has called the incident “extremely vicious” and urged local authorities to do their utmost to save the injured and “severely punish the criminal”. -- This article was first published on SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
