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BEIJING (AP) – The A suspect in a car accident that killed five children wanted to commit suicide and deliberately targeted a crowd walking in front of a primary school in northeastern China, officials said Friday.
The 29-year-old driver is an introvert and wanted to kill himself because he was arguing with his wife, according to a statement from Jianchang County, that a manager would have read over the phone at the AP. The suspect was only identified by his surname, Han.
The security camera footage showing Thursday's attack showed a vehicle hitting children who were almost finished crossing a street in front of their school before leaving. In addition to the deaths, 19 people were injured, including three seriously, said Jianchang's statement. Most of the victims were between 5 and 7 years old.
The school is located in Huludao City, Liaoning Province.
The driver was stopped shortly after the accident. The photos posted online by the police showed that he had been taken away from his vehicle, which appeared to have crashed into a ditch, and brought to the police station under the control of several officers.
He chose to target children at random, the statement said.
China has witnessed a series of attacks in which people qualified as mentally ill or insane and angry targeted pedestrians with vehicles.
Last month, a man armed with a knife drove a vehicle in a crowd in Ningbo, in the east of the country, killing two people and injuring 16 others.
And in September, 11 people were killed and 44 hospitalized after one man drove a SUV to another on a square in central Hunan Province, then came out and attacked the victims with a knife and a shovel.
Other deadly attacks occurred in or just outside the schools, including several in 2010, during which nearly 20 children were killed, pushing schools across the country to reinforce the situation. security.
Despite this, in June, a man used a kitchen knife to attack three boys and a mother near a school in Shanghai, killing two of the children. Last year, a man unleashed an explosion at the entrance of a kindergarten in eastern China, while relatives gathered to pick up their children at the end of the day. This attack killed eight people.
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