Driver Crashes Into Multiple Vehicles in Downtown Beijing—Images

Authorities in downtown Beijing arrested a driver late on Tuesday after his car crashed into a group of vehicles at an intersection, resulting in over a dozen injuries and at least one death.

The traffic incident, rarely seen in China’s strictly policed capital, happened during evening rush hour in Dongcheng district, home to Tiananmen Square and UNESCO World Heritage Sites like the Forbidden City.

The area neighbors Xicheng district’s Zhongnanhai, the large compound that houses the leadership of the Chinese government and its ruling Communist Party.

Beijing police said in a statement posted to social media on Wednesday that the 21-year-old driver, identified by the surname Gao, ran a red light and collided with an electric bicycle at 7:45 p.m. local time the previous evening.

In the “hit-and-run” incident, authorities said Gao struck a second e-bike and lost control of his vehicle a minute later, crashing into multiple scooters that had stopped at a red light at an intersection.

One person was killed and another suffered serious but non-life-threatening injuries, the statement said. Twelve people remained hospitalized, while four were discharged after checks.

The police said Gao was detained, but not suspected of driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs. His motives weren’t immediately clear.

Beijing’s traffic police didn’t respond to a request for comment.

In major Chinese urban centers, e-bikes have largely replaced bicycles as the go-to means of transport for members of the public. Tuesday’s crash appeared to take place in one of the city’s busy cycle lanes, according to images shared online.

On X, formerly Twitter, videos taken in the aftermath of the incident showed victims and debris strewn across the ground. Bystanders were seen confronting a man in the driver’s seat of a black SUV.

Newsweek couldn’t independently verify his identity.

Even before Elon Musk’s ownership of X, the platform had long been an internet archive for images removed from China’s main social media sites, including Weibo and WeChat.

Chinese internet censors are quick to remove text, videos or pictures from non-official sources, often citing the risk of misinformation. The tight enforcement makes even legitimate, on-the-ground information harder to come by.

A Beijing-based reporter for Taiwan’s semi-official Central News Agency said on Wednesday that police had requested witnesses delete videos from their mobile phones.

At the time of publication, a search for relevant keywords about the crash only returned results from verified municipal or state media accounts.