At least 35 people were killed and 43 injured after a car ploughed into a crowd outside a sports centre in China’s southern Zhuhai city, police said.

The hit-and-run took place at 7:48pm (11:48 GMT) on Monday, when a man drove a small off-road vehicle into a large group of people exercising outside the sports centre. It was only reported by police on Tuesday.

Zhuhai police said the suspect, a 62-year-old man surnamed Fan, was being treated at a hospital after hurting himself with a knife in his car.

Police called it a “serious and vicious attack”, but said the 43 people injured people were not in life-threatening condition.

A video of the scene following the attack, verified by the Reuters news agency, showed at least 20 people lying on the ground. Cries of “terrorist” could be heard as ambulances arrived to take the injured to hospital.

Fan was apprehended by police at the scene after attempting to flee, police said, adding that he had self-harmed using a knife, causing severe neck injuries.

Police said an initial investigation indicated that the suspect was motivated “by dissatisfaction with the division of marital property from his divorce”.

The suspect is currently in a coma after self-inflicted injuries to his neck and other parts of his body and unable to undergo interrogation, police added.

China’s President Xi Jinping ordered all-out efforts to treat the injured and demanded severe punishment for the perpetrator. The central government has dispatched a team to provide guidance on handling the case, according to state television network CCTV.

Violent crime is rare in China due to tight security and strict gun laws. However, an increase in reports of knife attacks in large cities has drawn public attention to safety in public spaces.

In October, a knife attack in the capital, Beijing, left five people wounded outside one of the city’s top primary schools. A month earlier, a Japanese student was fatally stabbed outside his school in Shenzhen city.

A Chinese man stabbed four United States university instructors and a Chinese national who tried to intervene at a public park in Jilin in the northeast in June.

Zhuhai is hosting China’s largest annual air show this week where a new stealth jet fighter will be on display for the first time.