BEIJING (Reuters) -A driver in an SUV ploughed into students and pedestrians outside a primary school in southern China on Tuesday, leaving several people injured, state media said, as worries spread over a spate of violent attacks in the country in the past week.
CCTV and other state media reported that the SUV hit people outside a primary school in Changde city in Hunan province as students were coming in for the day.
Many bystanders were injured, CCTV reported, and police said they were sent to the hospital "as soon as possible," with none having life-threatening injuries. Police did not provide a detailed number of those hurt.
Police said in a statement that a 39-year-old male had been arrested in connection with the incident, without saying how it occurred, and investigations were continuing.
It comes just over a week after a driver rammed his vehicle into a crowd at a sports centre in Zhuhai in southern China, killing 35 people and severely injuring 43 in the deadliest mass attack in China in a decade.
Tuesday's incident triggered a warning by Tokyo to Japanese citizens ahead of a soccer World Cup qualifier between the two nations, which went ahead but was briefly interrupted by a spectator covered in patriotic slogans who ran onto the field.
Japanese nationals were targeted in public stabbings earlier this year.
Video clips circulating on Chinese social media showed young children running into the Changde school compound, shouting, "Help!"
One clip showed a compact, white SUV stopped beyond the school entrance. At least five people, including a student with a backpack, were lying on the path taken by the vehicle, in a narrow street in front of the school, the videos show.
Someone can be heard shouting, "Call the police!" as a man is surrounded by a crowd and apparently beaten with sticks and rods. Another clip shows a man handcuffed and held down on wet cement by a figure in uniform. A woman's voice says the person drove to the school by himself and crashed there.
Reuters was able to verify that the location where the videos were shot matched the reported location of the crash at the primary school for children aged between 6 and 12 years.
China's top prosecutors met on Tuesday to discuss sentencing for "major vicious and extreme crimes," as well as those that endanger public security, a statement from the Supreme People's Procuratorate said on its official Weibo social media account.
"The hand of 'strictness' can never be loosened," said Ying Yong, procurator-general, in the post, one of the top five trending topics on the social media platform. "We must be resolute and determined and punish crimes severely and quickly in accordance with the law to provide a strong deterrent."
'RISE OF NATIONAL FOOTBALL'
There was no indication that Japanese citizens were targeted in the incidents over the last week, but Tokyo warned Japanese nationals in China to keep their voices down when speaking in Japanese in public and to avoid going out at night.
In September, an assailant killed a student at a Japanese school in southern China and in June a man killed a Chinese national who defended a Japanese mother and her child from an assailant who targeted a bus used by a Japanese school.
Japanese chief cabinet secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said at a regular briefing that Japan would "continue to monitor the security situation in China and do our utmost to ensure the safety of Japanese nationals."
China, for its part, offered reassurance over the safety of "all foreigners" in the country at a regular foreign ministry news conference.
Ahead of the World Cup qualifier, an announcer read out a letter from the organizers to supporters, urging "civility" and respect for others: "Respect the right of other spectators to watch the game, do not crowd, do not push, and avoid conflicts."
But during the match, a spectator ran onto the field and briefly approached the Japanese goalkeeper. He was tackled by several security guards and the game resumed shortly after.
A slogan, handwritten in Chinese characters on his bare back, read "Rise of national football", an image taken by Phoenix TV showed.
Police blamed last week's Zhuhai deaths on a male driver angry at his divorce settlement. Days later, a former student went on a stabbing rampage at a vocational college in eastern China's Wuxi, killing eight people.
In both cases, little information was released by police. The lack of detailed disclosures by authorities has stirred discussion on Chinese social media, much of it quickly censored, about a rise in economic and societal pressure and the mental health resources available to deal with it.
Including the Wuxi attack, there have been at least seven high-profile knife attacks this year across China.
China's official crime statistics show rates of violent crime much lower than the global average.
Trending online discussion topics over the past year have put a focus on diminished optimism in China for a turnaround in jobs, income and opportunity.
(Reporting by Beijing and Shanghai newsrooms; Writing by Bernard Orr, Liz Lee, Kevin Krolicki and Antoni Slodkowski; Editing by Michael Perry, Raju Gopalakrishnan and Ros Russell)
