Five Dead, 18 injure As Car Rams Into Children In China

A car rammed into a group of children crossing a street in front of an elementary school in northeast China on Thursday, killing five people and injuring another 18, state media said.

Police took the driver into custody and are investigating the cause of the incident in Huludao, Liaoning province, the official CCTV broadcaster said on its Weibo social media account.

Unverified videos circulating on social media appeared to show a car veering onto the wrong side of the road and plowing through the line of pupils, with the impact from the crash throwing bodies across the road.

Victims of the crash are undergoing medical treatment, according to CCTV. The incident happened around noon.

The ages of the victims were not released.

Police from Jianchang county in Huludao city did not immediately respond to AFP requests for comment.

Dangerous roads
Grisly car accidents are common in China, where transportation authorities have struggled to enforce safety regulations, which are often flouted or go unenforced.

According to authorities, 58,000 people were killed in traffic accidents across the country in 2015 alone.

Violations of traffic laws were blamed for nearly 90 percent of accidents that caused deaths or injuries that year.

Earlier this month, at least 13 people died when a bus plunged off a bridge in Chongqing municipality after the driver got into a fistfight with a passenger who had missed her bus stop.