Fan Weiqiu, 62, was executed on Monday after he was sentenced to death for murdering 35 people when he rammed his car into an outdoor exercise class in Zhuhai, in China’s south
A man in China has been put to death after he killed at least 35 people in a car ramming attack in November.
Fan Weiqiu, 62, is thought to have committed the deadliest attack in the country’s history after driving his car into an outdoor exercise class in Zhuhai, a city in China’s south. Another man, Xu Hiahin, 21, was executed at the same time after he went on a stabbing rampage at his university in the eastern city of Wuxi.
Fan was said to have been enraged over his divorce settlement, with authorities saying his “dissatisfaction” was what drove him to commit the heinous attack. Xu’s motive was “failing to obtain his diploma due to poor exam results”.
Following the November 11 incident, Fan was detained at the scene where he was found with self-inflicted wounds. Just a month later the Zhuhai Intermediate People’s Court found him guilty for his “extremely vile” crimes. His execution date today marked less than a month since the court handed down its sentence.
Xu’s case followed a similar trajectory, with police saying he confessed on November 16 and sentenced to death on December 17.
In the aftermath of Fan’s attack, horrific footage shared on social media showed the aftermath of the crash, with bodies scattered across the ground and witnesses trying to help those hurt by the crash as emergency services arrived to the scene. The harrowing incident unfolded outside Zhuhai Sports Centre, on the eve of the country’s premier aviation exhibition by the People’s Liberation Army that is hosted annually in the city.
Witnesses told local media that those injured were part of “a group of middle-aged and elderly people who were exercising on the track.” The police said in a statement: “A passenger car hit a number of pedestrians at the sports centre in Xiangzhou District of Zhuhai City and drove away.”
China doesn’t release details of its use of the death penalty, but the consensus among human rights groups is that Beijing executes more people than any other country.
In recent months, China has seen a surge of attacks, with many of the suspects saying they were spurred on by a desire to take revenge against the public and society as a whole. During 2024, there were 19 similar attacks in which killers took our their grievances on the wider public.
