1st LD-Writethru: Death toll rises to 9 in Shenzhen airport car accident

A car accident at Shenzhen Bao'an International Airport in south China's Guangdong Province has left nine people dead as of 11 p.m., local police said on Sunday.

At 3:32 p.m., a red sedan ran over several pedestrians near Terminal 3 of the airport, killing five on the scene and injuring 27 others, local police said on its verified microblog. Four died later in hospital.

The city's emergency center said the injured have been rushed to five hospitals. Five are still in a critical condition and another one is badly wounded.

The driver, a 24-year-old female who allegedly lost control of her vehicle after a honking car made her nervous, has been taken in for questioning by the police.

Initial investigation showed some 30 people were standing on a platform to view takeoffs and landings of planes and take photos when the car rammed into them. The platform is part of a driveway, not designed for pedestrians.

Huang Jiangtao, a witness who narrowly escaped the accident, told Xinhua that he did not realize pedestrians are banned from the area because there were neither signs nor staff workers to caution them.

However, a spokesperson of the airport said their guards patrol the area and disperse people on daily basis. The airport will add warning signs and increase patrols in future, the spokesperson said. Endit