A driver plowed into pedestrians at a busy intersection in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou, killing at least five people and injuring more than a dozen others, according to police and video posted on the internet. network.
Officers have arrested a 22-year-old man and are trying to determine a motive, according to the city police office. Videos emerged showing the driver throwing money into the air after hitting people and before being arrested.
The incident, which happened on Wednesday during afternoon rush hour, caused shock and outrage online and in Guangzhou, a city of more than 18 million people and the capital of Guangdong province.
Footage at the scene, in the busy Tianhe district, shows a black BMW SUV entering the intersection between Tianhe Road and Tiyu East Road at high speed, making a sharp turn as it collided with pedestrians and drivers. at many intersections.
Then, the victims lay motionless, covered in blood on the street, shoes and phones scattered around. “There was a collective mourning,” Hym Chu, a 25-year-old photographer, wrote in a post on Weibo, a Twitter-like social platform. “Everybody run away.”
Mr. Chu said he stayed at the chaotic scene for two hours, packing up the injured and helping move a delivery worker’s damaged motorbike.
In a video of the driver, filmed while he was being held on the ground, he shouted that his uncle was Huang Kunming, Communist Party Secretary of Guangdong province. Not sure if that’s true.
It’s rare for vehicles to deliberately rush into a crowd in China, but reckless driving involving luxury cars has sometimes sparked public anger, touching on tension in a country with a huge gap between rich and poor.
More than a decade ago, in the northeastern city of Baoding, the son of Li Gang, a deputy police chief, killed a university student while drunk driving his Volkswagen. When he was arrested, he shouted: “My father is Li Gang!” Propaganda officials tried to cover up the incident, but the phrase became a malicious joke symbolizing impunity by powerful local officials and those connected with them. .
Within hours of Wednesday’s Guangzhou incident, it became one of the most trending topics on Weibo, with many users criticizing the senseless deaths and disparaging motorists. By Thursday morning, some videos and graphic images from the scene had been taken down by censors.
Olivia Wang contribution report.
