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Five dead after man ploughs truck into Chinese schoolchildren

Other News Materials 6 November 2008 09:24 (UTC +04:00)

At least five people died and about 20 were injured when a man ploughed a truck into teenagers at a high school in southern China's Guangdong province, state media said Thursday.

The unidentified man drove the truck at high speed into a crowd of students as they were leaving classes at Chendong High School Wednesday afternoon in Zhuhai city, the official Xinhua news agency said.

Police later shot dead the truck driver, the agency said without giving details of the circumstances of the shooting, dpa reported.

It quoted local residents as saying the driver was from the central province of Hubei and had "vowed revenge" after a recent dispute with police over traffic violations.

But it said Zhuhai police had not revealed any motive behind the attack and were still investigating the case.

The semi-official China News Service said three students and one parent died Wednesday.

A fifth person died in hospital Thursday morning, Xinhua said.

In an earlier report, it quoted Zhuhai government spokesman Cai Xinhua as saying three seriously injured people were in comas.

The truck sped through the main school yard from the back gate to the front gate, Yang Chunmei, a student who sustained minor injuries as she tried to flee on her bicycle, told Xinhua.

"It all happened so fast," Yang was quoted as saying. "I even saw a person hanging on the moving truck."

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