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Vehicle Ploughs Into Pedestrians in Shanghai, 18 Injured

The incident coincides with a visit to the city by British Prime Minister Theresa May.

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Eighteen people were injured on 2 February after a vehicle on its way from west to east Nanjing Road, Shanghai to Xinchang intersection mounted the pavement in a busy part of central Shanghai and ploughed into pedestrians, the city government said.

The Shanghai government said in a short statement the vehicle hit the pedestrians on a road running next to People's Square, injuring 18 people, three of them seriously.

According to preliminary investigations, the fire was caused by a 40-year-old driver surnamed Chen who was smoking a cigarette inside the vehicle, the Shanghai public security bureau said on its official Weibo feed.

The vehicle was on fire, the statement added, without saying if the fire happened before the incident occurred.
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The flames had since been extinguished and an investigation was underway, the government said, without elaborating.

Shanghai-based news portal The Paper said the vehicle was a minivan, and cited eyewitnesses as saying it was on fire as it drove onto the pavement, knocked people down and came to a stop in front of a Starbucks outlet.

A Shanghai-based Starbucks spokesman told Reuters the store was not damaged and its customers and employees were safe.

The store is currently closed and we will assist the authorities in their investigations.
Spokesperson, Starbucks Shanghai 

Some bystanders tried to break the window of the vehicle in order to drag out the six people in the vehicle, including the driver, the report said.

Some witnesses also told the news outlet that there were gas cylinders in the vehicle.  

The story was later removed from the new outlet's website and replaced with the Shanghai government's short statement on the incident.

Footage on Chinese social media, which could not independently verified, showed smoke coming out from the vehicle and people lying flat on the ground injured in the street.

The incident coincides with a visit to the city by British Prime Minister Theresa May.

(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)

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Topics:  Shanghai   car crash 

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