Beijing:
A man who killed 35 people in a car attack in the southern Chinese city of Zhuhai last month was sentenced to death on Friday, state media reported.
On November 11, 62-year-old Fan Weiqiu deliberately drove his small SUV through people exercising outside a sports complex, the worst attack in China since 2014.
He was arrested at the scene with self-inflicted knife wounds and fell into a coma, police said at the time.
His case was tried publicly on Friday, state broadcaster CCTV reported, and the verdict was handed down the same day.
The court said the defendant’s motives were “extremely despicable, the nature of the crime extremely egregious, the methods particularly cruel and the consequences particularly serious, causing significant harm to society,” state media reported.
In the presence of some of the victims’ families, officials and members of the public, Fan pleaded guilty, it added.
The court found that Fan had “decided to vent his anger” over “a broken marriage, personal frustrations and dissatisfaction over the division of property after the divorce,” the report said.
China has seen a series of mass casualty incidents this year – from stabbings to car attacks – that are testing its reputation for good public safety.
Some analysts have linked the incidents to growing anger and despair over the country’s slowing economy and a sense that society is becoming increasingly stratified.