BEIJING: Several students were injured Tuesday after a car crashed outside a primary school in central China’s Hunan province, state media said.

China has witnessed a spate of deadly incidents in recent months — from mass stabbings to car rammings — in a rare development for a country with a proud reputation for public security.

The issue has prompted soul-searching about the state of society, with some despairing about why an increasing number of individuals seem willing to “take revenge” on random civilians.

State broadcaster CCTV reported that “many schoolchildren were injured” in Tuesday’s incident, but said the “specific casualties” were still being investigated. State media did not say if the crash was deliberate.

Footage circulating on Chinese social media — which matched online images of the school — appeared to show the aftermath of the incident, with dozens of children running in panic away from the site of the crash.

In one clip, several people including a young child can be seen lying on the ground.

Another showed a bloodied man being beaten with sticks by passersby as he lay on the ground next to an SUV.

Many initial videos of the incident already appeared to have been removed from China’s tightly controlled social media platforms.

The crash took place outside Yong’an primary school in the central city of Changde, home to over five million people.

It quickly became one of the most discussed social media topics, racking up over 95 million views on the Weibo platform by 11:10am (0310GMT).

Many users despaired at the occurrence of another grisly incident involving children.

“How can something like this be happening yet again?” wrote one user.

“There have been so many people taking their revenge on society recently,” lamented another.

A third commented: “These kinds of things have a copycat effect. It just takes one big event for others to learn from.”