‘Many’ children injured in car crash at school in China, reports say

Videos circulating on Chinese social media show screaming children and people lying injured on the ground.

casualty is assisted following a vehicle collision outside a primary school in Changde
An injured woman following a vehicle collision outside a primary school in Changde, Hunan province [Screengrab via Reuters]

Multiple schoolchildren have been injured following a car crash outside a school in central China’s Hunan province, state media outlets have reported.

“Many” children were injured in the incident, but the specific number of casualties is still being determined, state-run China Central Television (CCTV) said on Tuesday.

Videos circulating on Chinese social media platforms appeared to show screaming children running into the school and multiple people lying injured on the ground.

CCTV did not specify if the crash, which occurred in front of Yongan Primary School in the Dingcheng District of Changde, was believed to be an accident or deliberate.

The official Xinhua News Agency said several adults were also injured and that the driver of a white SUV had been subdued by parents and security guards.

While violent crime is uncommon in China, a series of recent mass attacks has drawn attention to the threat of individuals with personal grievances seeking revenge against society.

Last week, a man rammed his car into a crowd in the southern city of Zhuhai, killing 35 people and injuring more than 40 others.

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Local police said the suspect in that case had been aggrieved over the terms of his divorce.

On Saturday, at least eight people were killed and 17 others injured in a stabbing rampage at a vocational school in the eastern city of Wuxi.

Police said the suspect, a 21-year-old male student, had been unable to graduate from university after failing his exams and was unhappy with the pay at his internship.

In September, a 37-year-old man was arrested for stabbing three people to death and wounding 15 others at a Shanghai supermarket.

Authorities said the suspect had travelled to Shanghai to “vent his anger” over a personal financial dispute.

Source: Al Jazeera and news agencies

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