BEIJING: A man who killed 35 people in a car attack in the southern Chinese city of Zhuhai last month was sentenced to death on Friday, state media reported.

On Nov 11, 62-year-old Fan Weigiu deliberately drove through people exercising outside a sports complex in his small SUV, the worst attack in China since 2014.

He was detained at the scene with self-inflicted knife wounds and fell into a coma, police said at the time. His case was publicly tried on Friday, state broadcaster CCTV reported, with the verdict reached on the same day.

The court said the defendant`s motives `were extremely vile, the nature of the crime extremely egregious, the methods particularly cruel, and the consequences particularly severe, posing significant harm to society`, state media said.

In front of some of the victims` families, officials and members of the public, Fan pleaded guilty, it added.

The court found Fan had `decided to vent his anger` over `a broken marriage, personal frustrations, and dissatisfaction with the division of property after divorce`, the report said.

Violent crime is generally rare in China compared to many Western countries, but the country has seen a string of mass casualty incidents this year.-AFP