On Monday, the 62-year-old man surnamed Fan ploughed a small SUV through a gate to the complex in the city of Zhuhai and into crowds of people as they exercised on the roads inside, according to police.
An initial police statement said people had been injured, but did not mention any deaths -- and videos of the attack later appeared to be scrubbed from China's tightly controlled social media platforms.
As of Wednesday, the rampage had left 35 people dead and 43 with injuries not deemed life-threatening, according to state media reports.
AFP witnessed residents and delivery drivers laying bouquets at a gate outside the complex on Wednesday morning, before the flowers were carried behind a cordon fence within minutes.
"What happened wasn't a small incident," a woman of about 50 told AFP, requesting anonymity to protect her privacy.
"We should remember those who passed away and not be so cold. I think more people in Zhuhai should come out here and lay some flowers in memorial," she added.
- Divorce 'dissatisfaction' -
Police said Fan was apprehended at the scene but was in a coma after self-inflicted knife injuries, preventing them from interrogating him.
But the force said preliminary enquiries suggested the attack was "triggered by (Fan's) dissatisfaction with the division of property following his divorce".
Security at the scene was tight on Wednesday, with plainclothes officers using their bodies and umbrellas to block AFP reporters from taking photos and videos.
Since Tuesday night, journalists had observed people placing candles and flowers near the site of the attack to commemorate the victims.
But cleaning staff removed the memorials in the early hours of Wednesday, with some telling AFP they were acting on an "order from the top".
Officials at the site said the items were being moved to a "mourning hall" inside the complex, with no access to the public.
Footage of Monday's incident geolocated by AFP showed people lying motionless on the ground, while others were seen frantically attempting to resuscitate the seemingly unconscious.
An eyewitness surnamed Liu told Chinese news magazine Caixin that the car "drove in a loop" around a dedicated exercise track encircling the stadium in the sports complex.
"People were hurt in all areas of the running track -- east, south, west, and north," he said.
Chinese President Xi Jinping urged "all-out efforts" to treat the injured and "demanded punishing the perpetrator in accordance with the law", according to state news agency Xinhua.
The incident took place as Zhuhai hosts China's largest airshow, showcasing Beijing's civil and military aerospace sector.
- Spate of mass killings -
Violent crime is generally rare in China compared to many Western countries, but the Asian nation has witnessed a spate of deadly attacks in recent months.
In several cases, Beijing has described the killings as isolated incidents, or the motives of the perpetrators have not been publicly disclosed.
After the Zhuhai attack, Xi called on authorities to "strictly guard against the occurrence of extreme cases", Xinhua reported.
Japan's embassy warned its citizens in China to be on high alert and "refrain from speaking loudly in Japanese", despite no initial indications that any had been targeted.
In September, a Japanese schoolboy was fatally stabbed in the neighbouring city of Shenzhen, prompting an outcry from Tokyo.
A man killed three people and wounded 15 in a knife attack at a supermarket in Shanghai in October, while in July, police said a vehicle crashed into pedestrians in the central city of Changsha, killing eight.
Monday's incident is on a par with some of China's deadliest attacks in recent memory.
In 2014, 31 people were killed and 143 were wounded in a knife attack at a railway station in the southwestern city of Kunming that officials later blamed on terrorism.
The same year, a vehicle ramming and suicide bombing in the northwestern city of Urumqi killed 43 -- including four assailants -- and wounded more than 90. The incident was also deemed a terror attack.
How China's censorship machine worked to block news of deadly attack
Beijing (AFP) Nov 13, 2024 -
At least 35 people were killed and dozens more injured when a man ploughed his car into pedestrians exercising around a sports centre in the southern Chinese city of Zhuhai on Monday night.
Footage showing bodies lying on the pavement appeared on social media in the hours after the crash but had vanished by early Tuesday morning, and local police reported only "injuries".
It took officials nearly 24 hours to reveal that dozens had died -- in one of the country's deadliest incidents in years.
Here AFP looks at how China jumps into action to block information it does not want shared:
- Social media scrub -
China heavily monitors social media platforms, where it is common for words and topics deemed sensitive to be removed -- sometimes within minutes.
On X-like social media platform Weibo, videos and photos showing the bloody moments after the incident late Monday night were swiftly deleted.
Videos of the aftermath posted to Xiaohongshu, China's equivalent to Instagram, were also taken down.
- 24-hour delay -
Chinese officials did not reveal that dozens had died until almost 24 hours after the attack, with state media reporting the 35 deaths shortly after 6:30 pm on Tuesday.
Soon after, the hashtag "Man in Zhuhai rammed the crowd causing 35 deaths" jumped to the No. 1 trending topic on Weibo and reached 69 million views within an hour.
The fatal crash happened on the eve of China's largest airshow, taking place in the same city, a showpiece event promoted for weeks by the country's tightly controlled state media operation.
- State narrative -
State media in China also acts as a government mouthpiece.
The state-backed newspaper Global Times on Wednesday morning published a short story on the "car ramming case" on page 3 -- a stark contrast to the front page feature on fighter jets at the airshow nearby.
The Communist Party's People's Daily included Chinese President Xi Jinping's instructions to treat injured residents and punish the perpetrator in a short block of text on its front page.
State broadcaster CCTV's flagship evening news programme, Xinwen Lianbo, on Tuesday spent about a minute and a half on Xi's directive to "treat those injured" during the 30-minute show, but shared no footage from the city.
- 'Order from the top' -
AFP reporters on the scene in Zhuhai late Tuesday night saw delivery drivers placing online orders of flower bouquets beside flickering candles to commemorate the victims.
But just a few hours later, cleaning staff cleared away the memorial, with some telling AFP they were acting on an "order from the top".
A handful of people at the site were blocked from taking videos by a police car and security guards shouting: "No filming!"
- Long history -
China has a long history of clamping down on the spread of information, sometimes leading to costly delays in response.
Authorities in 2008 worked to stifle news of contaminated milk that poisoned about 300,000 children -- days before the start of the Beijing Olympics.
The Chinese government that year also restricted foreign media access when protests broke out after an earthquake in southwest Sichuan province killed an estimated 70,000 people.
And Chinese censors delayed an early response to Covid-19, penalising local health officials who warned of a fast-spreading coronavirus.
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