At least five people were killed and 21 others were injured after a bus which had been hijacked in the southern Fujian province plowed into pedestrians on Tuesday (Dec 25), officials said.
A hijacker carrying a knife had been detained and was being investigated by local police, state television CGTN reported.
Rescue and treatment of the victims was is under way, according to the city government of Longyan, where the incident occurred.
One of the victims has been identified as a police officer.
Online footage showed a road littered with fragments of damaged vehicles and a group of police officers and by-standers pouncing on the alleged hijacker.
The incident happened at about 3:20 pm in the city of Longyan, the local Minxi Ribao newspaper reported. A policeman was among the five confirmed dead.
In a video posted by Duowei news, a Chinese media outlet based in the US, several injured people were lying on the street near a crashed bus, its front badly damaged.
It also showed police wrestling a person to the ground.
Blood could also be seen on the steps of the bus, which had been stopped in the middle of a road.
The hijacker had attacked a female passenger before taking control of the bus, Duowei reported.
The suspect has not been identified and Longyan public security bureau declined to comment
China has suffered a spate of similar incidents this year.
In late November, a car ploughed into a group of children crossing a street in front of an elementary school in the northeastern Liaoning province, killing five people and injuring at least 19.
The driver said he ‘chose his victims at random’ and had reportedly been contemplating suicide due to domestic troubles before the tragedy occurred.
Grisly car accidents are common in China, where transportation authorities have struggled to enforce safety regulations, which are often flouted or go unenforced.
Violent crime has also been on the rise in China in recent decades as the gap between rich and poor has widened rapidly.