China has witnessed a spate of deadly incidents in recent months -- from mass stabbings to car rammings -- in a rare development for a country with a proud reputation for public security.
The issue has prompted soul-searching about the state of society, with some despairing about why an increasing number of individuals seem willing to "take revenge" on random civilians.
State news agency Xinhua reported that "multiple students were injured" in Tuesday's incident, while state broadcaster CCTV said the "specific casualties" were still being investigated. State media did not say if the crash was deliberate.
Footage circulating on Chinese social media -- which matched online images of the school -- appeared to show the aftermath of the incident, with dozens of children running in panic away from the site of the crash yelling "help, help".
In one clip, several people including a young child can be seen lying on the ground.
Another showed a bloodied man being hit with sticks by passersby shouting "beat him!" as he lay on the ground next to an SUV.
Many initial videos of the incident already appeared to have been removed from China's tightly controlled social media platforms.
The crash took place outside Yong'an primary school in the central city of Changde, home to over five million people.
It quickly became one of the most discussed social media topics, racking up over 95 million views on the Weibo platform by 11:10 am (0310 GMT).
Many users despaired at the occurrence of another grisly incident involving children.
"How can something like this be happening yet again?" asked one user.
"There have been so many people taking their revenge on society recently," said another.
A third commented: "These kinds of things have a copycat effect. It just takes one big event for others to learn from."
- Spate of deadly incidents -
China has seen a string of mass casualty incidents this year, which some analysts have linked to growing anger and desperation at the country's slowing economy and sense that society is becoming more stratified.
Tuesday's crash was the third seemingly random outbreak of carnage in just over a week.
Last week a man killed 35 people and wounded more than 40 more when he rammed his car into a crowd in the southern city of Zhuhai -- the country's deadliest attack in a decade.
But authorities took almost 24 hours to release that toll, and videos of the attack later appeared to be scrubbed from social media.
Police said the suspect, surnamed Fan, had been "triggered by... dissatisfaction with the division of property following his divorce".
On Saturday, eight people were killed and 17 wounded in a knife attack at a vocational school in the eastern Chinese city of Yixing.
Police said the suspect was a 21-year-old former student who was meant to graduate this year but had failed his exams.
And in October, in Shanghai, a man killed three people and wounded 15 others in a knife attack at a supermarket.
burs-oho/je/fox
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