On Saturday morning, a middle-aged man boarded Bus No. 7 in Hangzhou and lit a package of flammable liquids. The ensuing flames injured at least 32 passengers, with 24 in critical condition. You can watch the frightening scene above, and also check out the scene from the street, outside the flaming bus.

Police have identified the man as 34-year-old Bao Laixu from Gansu province. Motive is currently unknown, but terrorism has been ruled out. Global Times reports, “A source close to local authorities told the Global Times the suspect is not a Hangzhou resident, nor is he a Uyghur.”

The incident could have been worse, considering there were 80 people onboard and the fire was lit right in the middle of the bus, right next to the door.

Here’s a picture of the suspect:

A 41-year-old man identified as surnamed Li stabbed and killed four people on a bus on Sunday night in Chengdu, injuring 11 others. Officers on the scene, after firing warning shots, fired and Li and wounded him.

Reports SCMP:

Chengu police confirmed that Li was originally from Jintang county, and said he may have committed the attacks because of financial problems that resulted from “family discord” and the long-term stress of working away from his hometown.

Li’s attacks are a blow to Caojia Alley, a formerly more industrial area that is now a key region in Chengdu’s commercial redevelopment and restructuring program.

This incident follows a similar bus stabbing in Anyang, Henan province on August 20, when a man randomly stabbed 15 people and killed three of them.

Here are some graphic photos of the aftermath via Sina Weibo. Second warning: graphic.

UPDATE, video:

UPDATE, 8/28, 11:20 am: We were amiss to not comment on the heroics of the bus driver. This via China Daily:

The driver stopped the bus and opened both doors to allow passengers on board to flee. As the suspect fled, he also stabbed passersby.

Holding a mop, the bus driver chased the man, and some people in the street tried to stop him.

Assuming China Daily means “tried to stop the knife-wielder.” Chased him with a mop.

Yesterday, we saw a CGI reenactment of a man in Anyang, Henan province randomly stabbing 15 people on a bus on Tuesday. Today, we have real-life footage from outside, and it’s much more harrowing: passengers scramble away, but some turn back around to help out the injured.

The attacker got out of the same bus — you might even see him if you know where to look — and fled.

Three people, ages 18, 10, and 10-and-a-half months, would die. The suspect was captured on Wednesday while trying to buy watermelon.

The manhunt in Anyang, Henan province is over. Police have reportedly detained the man wanted for indiscriminately killing three people — all of them very young — and injuring a dozen more on a bus yesterday. Reports are the man was recognized while trying to buy a watermelon.

The suspect is reportedly from Neihuang county in Anyang, and has a criminal record.

Yesterday around 3:05 pm, he boarded a bus with 33 passengers. (You can watch the CGI reenactment in the video above.) After moving to the front and causing the bus driver to sideswipe another vehicle, he took out two knives and began randomly stabbing those around him.

The driver opened the front and back doors to allow the passengers to flee.

The three who died were tragically young: 18-year-old and 10-year-old boys, and a 10-and-a-half-month-old girl.

We don’t expect the suspect to remain in detention for long. His death sentence will be swift and prompt.

On Monday at 3:05 pm, a bus in Anyang, Henan province was the scene of a knife attack that resulted in two deaths.

A man reportedly pulled out his knife and robbed several people in their seats. Fifteen people were injured and two fatally stabbed. More than 400 officers were scrambled to the scene.

“The police is rounding up the suspect and has offered 100,000 RMB reward for his capture,” reports CCTV.

UPDATE, 11:52 am: A 10-and-a-half-month old girl has died at the hospital, bringing the death count up to three. There were 33 passengers on the bus.

The suspect is believed to be 27 years old, about 1.65 meters tall:

UPDATE, 8/21, 1 am: He was captured Tuesday afternoon while shopping for watermelons.

The following pictures are via Weibo:

A bus drove off the road and plunged into a valley near Miaoergou village in Changji Hui autonomous prefecture, Xinjiang on Tuesday evening, killing at least 15. According to AP, citing state media, the bus was carrying 36 passengers.

This was the latest fatal bus crash since the last one.

(Images via)

Authorities are searching for a suspect they believe caused a bus fire in Xiamen, Fujian province during evening rush hour on Friday, killing 47 people and injuring 34.”Some witnesses said they heard explosions about ten minutes after the fire broke out,” reports Xinhua.

Fifteen students who had just completed tests were on the bus, according to a press conference held earlier today.

And this, via AP:

Among the clues, Xinhua said, was that investigators found traces of gasoline on the wreckage, though the bus ran on diesel fuel and its oil tank and tires remained intact.

“It’s a serious criminal case,” the Ministry of Public Security, the national police agency, said in a statement on its website. Xiamen police declined further comment.

A photo of the suspect:

UPDATE, 8:39 pm: The arson has been identified as Chen Shuizong, who also died in fire. Via AP:

Police identified him as Chen Shuizong after an on-site investigation, interviews and examination of evidence, including DNA, a government notice said. It said Chen was a local resident born in 1954 and that police found a suicide note in his home.

He was unhappy with life and set the fire to vent his anger, the city said. Xiamen’s municipal government issued the notice Saturday through state media and a Xiamen police microblog.

Scenes from the aftermath:

And these pictures via Global Times:

Look at this van. How many young children can fit inside? (No, this isn’t a variation of a dead baby joke.) At least 40? At least 40. Because it’s a clown van, and the gimmick is there’s always room for one more than you’d expect.

By my very unofficial count, it was closer to 50 kids than 40, but at some point, we can just say: way too damn many.

On November 16, 2011, a nine-seater van carrying 62 children — way too damn many — plus two adults collided with a truck in Gansu province. Eighteen kindergarteners, their teacher, and the driver died.

The nationwide outcy spawned new regulations about school bus safety, but just a month later, 15 primary school children were killed when their bus rolled into a river.

A year later, a similar incident — a bus driving into a pond — killed 11 children in Jiangxi province.

If you were a parent, knowing the road safety flaws in China, particularly on buses, what would you do if your child was packed along with nearly 50 other children into a van?

Just wondering. Clown cars and clown situations are all fun and games until someone gets hurt.

Oh geez, more adventures on buses. In Suzhou, Jiangsu province on Saturday morning, an old man began striking and kicking a young woman he felt should have given him her seat. Of course it’s traditional in China for passengers to offer their seats for elders — we are constantly reminded of this via prerecorded messages on public transit — but why was this one particular girl singled out?

Interviewed afterwards, the young woman said she was on her way to take a test and had her head buried in review material, which is why she might not have noticed the old man standing next to her. She said the man was beyond belligerent, sticking a finger in her face and asking, “You think I won’t beat you? You think I won’t beat you?”

The initial skirmish only lasts about 10 seconds, with the older man retreating to the back of the bus to get off. But when the student pulls out her cell phone to snap a picture, the man returns to continue fighting. Eventually he is pulled off her by other passengers.

He gets off at the next stop and disappears. Police were unable to find him.

This incident comes after we saw, on May 22, an old man cause a multi-vehicle accident by grabbing a bus driver. And also last week, a foreigner completely lost his cool at a bus driver in Chengdu. Perhaps it’s time we started a new tag.

(H/T We Live in Beijing)

An 83-year-old man was riding bus No. 606 in Tianjin on the morning of May 22 when he missed his stop. Instead of doing what normal people might, which is to get off at the next stop and backtrack, he threw a massive fit, lost control, and berated the bus driver, “I didn’t see you stop at all!”

And then the old man seized the driver by the shoulder while the bus was still moving — something no one should do.

The driver jerked the steering wheel counterclockwise as other passengers began screaming in the background.

No. 606 slammed into a bus on its left before veering to the right and crashing through a barrier, coming to a stop before completely going onto the other side of the road.

Luckily, after all this, only two people were injured, and none seriously, according to the news report.

The old man was reprimanded — sternly, we imagine — but there was no word about whether he would incur serious punishment. The case remains under investigation.

Adventures on buses continue.

(H/T Reddit)

We all know the feeling of losing our cool, but how many of us know the misfortune of having a meltdown secretly filmed and uploaded to Youku, where it gets 390,000 views in half a day?

Check out the above, which happened recently in Chengdu, according to the Youku description. A foreigner, because he almost misses a bus, begins cursing at the bus driver in up to three languages, while everyone else watches in silence.

I can’t make out what the bus driver is saying, but among the things the foreigner utters in English are, “Look at me! Look!” and, “Fucking!”

After taking a seat, still fuming, he directs his anger at the other passengers, some of whom are presumably staring at him. “You look at me and you’re like, ha ha ha ha,” the foreigner says, a line that can’t help but remind us of this similarly incensed foreigner in Sanya Airport (the Ni you ha ha ha wo – 你有哈哈哈我 – guy).

He has a few last words for the bus driver, too, after wiping his brow. “You fucking piece of shit,” he says. “You see me fuckin’ running, huh? You saw me fuckin’ running! Huh?”

A bus and truck collided in Wenshui, Shanxi province yesterday morning, sending both vehicles off a bridge. The cause of the accident is being investigated, but according to Xinhua:

One person died at the scene, and another eight died in hospital after medical treatment failed. Among the injured who are receiving medical treatment, three are in serious condition, said the spokesman.

That’s nine dead, 29 injured. Driving off bridges is a bad trend.

Bus driver Mao Zhihao was leisurely driving down the road on Sunday, March 24 in Quzhou, Zhejiang province when HOLY CRAP WATCH OUT FOR THAT POLE!

Watch in the above as a streetlight crashes directly through the bus’s windshield. The 44-year-old driver ducked in the nick of time, escaping death. Impressively, he also stopped the bus, ensuring that no passengers got hurt. For his efforts, some have bestowed upon him the “Most Beautiful” label.

We’ve seen debris fly through bus windows before on China’s roads, sometimes with tragic consequences. It’s lucky that no one on Mao’s Bus 602 was seriously injured, despite the aftermath looking like this:

The cause of the streetlight collapse was reportedly an accident that happened on the other side of the street.

(H/T Alicia)

Another bus drove off the road in China, throwing road safety concerns back into headlines. In Baoshan, Yunnan province yesterday at around 4:25 pm, a passenger bus carrying 29 people “plunged into a ravine,” according to Xinhua. Judging by the picture, it’s amazing that the casualty count didn’t exceed 13.

Xinhua reports that the driver was “operating the vehicle improperly in heavy rain.”

The video is of the rescue efforts.

Last week, a sleeper coach carrying 22 people drove off a bridge in Jingzhou, Hubei province, killing 14.

A sleeper coach carrying 22 people, most of them migrant workers, drove off the Jingzhou Yangtze River Bridge on Tuesday evening in Jingzhou, Hubei province, killing at least 14, according to Xinhua. Two passengers remain in critical condition, while the other six suffered a range of injuries but are expected to survive.

The bus was driving from Wuhan, the capital of Hubei, to Enshi. The double-decker was owned by a transport company in Enshi, according to Xinhua. The victims have not been identified.

14 dead, 8 injured in China bus crash (Xinhua, h/t Alicia)