A man sentenced to death for driving his car at people who were exercising outside of a stadium, in southern China.
A court statement said that Fan Weiqiu had been accused of “endangering the public safety”.
The November 11th attack on Zhuhai is believed to have killed at least 35 people and injured dozens of others. It was the deadliest incident in China in the last decade.
The court said that the 62-year-old man drove his car at high speeds into crowds while on a running course because he felt “dissatisfied with” the way his property was divided after his divorce.
The court referred to his motives as “extremely evil” and described “the methods” of the attack as “particularly cruel”. Caixin magazine reported that a witness said he drove “in a circle” and left victims “hurt all over the running track”, a popular place for people to exercise.
Chinese media reported that Fan, who had been initially believed to be in a state of coma after sustaining self-inflicted injuries, admitted his guilt before the families of the victims and other members of society.
This was just one of 19 attacks on strangers that have taken place in China this year, including two within a single week of the Zhuhai incident.
Not all of them involved vehicles. At least 21 people were killed in February in a mass stabbing attack and gunfire in Shandong. Chinese authorities heavily censored the incident.
At least 63 people were killed and 166 others injured by these attacks. This is an increase from previous years when 16 people were killed and 40 others were injured.
Some people have suggested that the rise in random attacks may be a sign of a growing frustration and anger, as the economy continues to slow and the uncertainty about the future increases.
Lynette Oong, professor of Chinese Politics at the University of Toronto, Canada, told AFP in November that “these are symptoms of a social system with a great deal of unresolved grievances.”