Zhuhai car attack: China removes memorials, censors online outrage
Chinese authorities scrambled on Wednesday to respond to public outrage over the Zhuhai car ramming that killed 35 people.
HONG KONG — Chinese authorities scrambled Wednesday to quell public outrage over the country’s deadliest mass killing in a decade, as well as the delay in reporting it.
Flowers and other offerings were removed almost as soon as they were laid at a makeshift memorial in the southern Chinese city of Zhuhai, where 35 people were killed Monday evening when a car rammed into a crowd of people exercising outside a sports center.
The initial statement from authorities said the driver had been detained at the scene and that those who were injured had been taken to the hospital, and the incident was downplayed in Chinese state media. It wasn’t until almost 24 hours later, on Tuesday night, that authorities reported the death toll in the attack, which also injured 43 others.
Chinese state media reported that President Xi Jinping had ordered “all-out efforts” to treat the injured and that the perpetrator be “severely punished in accordance with the law.”
Amid a growing public outcry, discussion of the attack appeared to be suppressed on heavily censored Chinese social media platforms, with videos and other posts continuously deleted.
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