Driver who killed 35 sentenced to death

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 through people exercising outside a sports complex in his small SUV.

He was detained at the scene with self-inflicted knife wounds and fell into a coma, police said at the time.

His case was publicly tried on Friday, state broadcaster CCTV reported, with the verdict reached on the same day.

The court said the defendant's motives "were extremely vile, the nature of the crime extremely egregious, the methods particularly cruel, and the consequences particularly severe, posing significant harm to society", state media said.

In front of some of the victims' families, officials and members of the public, Fan pleaded guilty, it added.

The court found Fan had "decided to vent his anger" over "a broken marriage, personal frustrations, and dissatisfaction with the division of property after divorce", the report said