Three dead and 15 injured as Chinese ‘would-be suicide driver’ crashes vehicle into students outside school

Three Chinese people were killed and 15 others injured on Tuesday morning after a vehicle, reportedly driven by a man trying to commit suicide over gambling debts, crashed at high speed into a crowd of pedestrians and cyclists outside a school, mainland media reports.

Most of the dead and injured following the incident at 7.15am in Fengxin county, in Yichun city, Jiangxi province, were students at the county’s largest high school, China Central Television reported.

Two of the injured are in a critical condition, the county government said.

The driver of the white sports utility vehicle has been detained by police, but the authorities did not reveal any motive.

However, The Beijing News reported that when local residents opened the door to the car they saw a man crouched on the driver’s seat with a stomach wound and a knife in his right hand.

The residents told the newspaper the man had lost his money while gambling and claimed he tried to commit suicide and had chosen to take revenge on innocent people.