Hong Kong (CNN) – 35 people were killed in southern China after a man drove his car into crowds exercising at an outdoor sports center late Monday, police said, in the country’s deadliest known public attack in recent years. ten years.

Another 43 people were injured and hospitalized during the rampage in the southern city of Zhuhai, local police said in a statement on Tuesday.

Police said the driver, identified as a 62-year-old man surnamed Fan, was apprehended as he attempted to flee the scene. An initial investigation suggested he was unhappy with the outcome of a divorce settlement, they added.

The death toll is China’s highest since 2014, when a series of terror attacks rocked the far western region of Xinjiang. But sudden episodes of violence in recent months targeting random members of the public — including schoolchildren — have surged across the country as economic growth falters, upsetting a public long accustomed to low violent crime rates and ubiquitous surveillance.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping described the mass shooting in Zhuhai as “extremely vicious”, calling for the perpetrator to be severely punished in accordance with the law, state broadcaster CCTV reported.

Police said Fan’s small SUV forced its way onto the grounds of the sports complex and hit people exercising around a track at around 7.48pm on Monday.

When police intercepted his escape, Fan was found self-harming with a knife in the car and taken to hospital for treatment, the statement said.

“Due to severe self-inflicted neck injuries, Fan is currently unconscious, is still undergoing emergency treatment and cannot be questioned,” police said.

Outside the sports center, some Zhuhai residents laid wreaths, candles and bottles of Chinese alcohol to mourn the victims, but they were quickly removed by authorities, Reuters reported.

Motorcycle delivery drivers continued to leave flowers at the site on Wednesday, but the bouquets were immediately removed by security personnel deployed there, sometimes even before a person could place them on the ground, according to Reuters.

The car theft happened the night before Zhuhai was to host China’s largest civil and military air show, which runs from November 12 to 17.

Chinese officials have often carefully controlled and censored information following attacks on the public in a country where the ruling Communist Party prizes stability. Media coverage of Zhuhai for the air show and the high death toll from the attack appeared to have heightened sensitivity.

It took Zhuhai authorities a full day to release any information about the victims. The initial police statement on Monday, consisting of just two paragraphs, said categorically that a car “knocked down several pedestrians”.

As news of the attack spread, censors stepped in to remove online videos of the attack and moderate discussion on social media. Eyewitness accounts and some Chinese media reports detailing what happened were also censored.

Online videos of the aftermath, geotagged by CNN, show dozens of people lying on jogging tracks and nearby fields, shoes strewn about.

Many of the injured were dressed in sportswear, including the uniforms of at least two local fitness groups.

Chinese media Caixin reported that the SUV crashed into several walking groups, hitting dozens of participants. Many of the injured were middle-aged and elderly, although there were also teenagers and children among them, Caixin reported.

“(The vehicle) rammed all around, injuring people in different sections of the sports ground circular track in the east, south, west and north areas,” a witness surnamed Liu told Caixin.

The Zhuhai Sports Center has an outdoor running track and is frequented by local residents for daily exercise. Following the incident, the center announced that it would be closed until further notice.

On Tuesday night, when police finally gave a more detailed account of events, they went back on how much information to release.

An early version of his statement mentioned Fan’s repeated attempt to sue his ex-wife over disputes over how to divide their assets. Dissatisfied with the original trial and appeal rulings, he requested a retrial, which is pending, the initial statement said. But that paragraph was soon deleted in an updated version.

On Tuesday evening, Xi urged officials to “prevent risks at source” and “promptly resolve conflicts and disputes” to prevent such incidents from happening again.

China, a country of 1.4 billion, has one of the lowest violent crime rates in the world, partly due to strict gun controls and strong mass surveillance. But it has faced an increase in random attacks on civilians in recent months.

In October, police arrested a 50-year-old man after a stabbing attack near a primary school in Beijing injured five people, including three children.

In September, three people were killed and 15 others injured in a knife attack at a suburban Shanghai supermarket.

Also in September, a bus he ran into a crowd of students and parents outside a school in the city of Tai’an in Shandong province, killing 11 people and injuring 13 others. Authorities have not disclosed whether it was accidental or intentional.