Chinese authorities took almost 24 hours to officially disclose the incident, which took place on Monday night in Zhuhai, a city of about 2.5 million people in southern China near Macau.

An angry driver plowed his car into a crowd at a sports center in southern China, resulting in the deaths of 35 people and leaving 43 others critically injured in what is considered one of the deadliest attacks in modern Chinese history.

Chinese authorities took almost 24 hours to officially disclose the incident, which took place on Monday night in Zhuhai, a city of about 2.5 million people in southern China near Macau, Reuters reports.

Images and videos showing dozens of people knocked to the ground and a car fleeing from the scene, which circulated on China's major social media platforms on Monday night, were swiftly censored.

Angry comments about the official delay in reporting the incident were also removed, and the Weibo messaging site censored a hashtag that mentioned the death toll.

Police said the 62-year-old driver, with the surname Fan, had been captured and was hospitalised for wounds believed to have been self-inflicted with a knife to the neck and other parts of his body. Fan had been upset about the split of assets in his divorce settlement, police added.

Candles and flowers had been laid at the scene on Tuesday evening. Around 30 people gathered around one of the gates of the sports centre, with delivery drivers on bikes stopping to add to around 20 bouquets laid in a row.

Hundreds of rescue personnel from Zhuhai city and Guangdong province were deployed to provide emergency treatment, and more than 300 healthcare workers from five hospitals worked around the clock to save lives, state media Beijing Daily reported.

The attack happened as Zhuhai captured China's attention with the People's Liberation Army's largest annual airshow, where a new stealth jet fighter is on display for the first time.

"I was driving nearby last night and heard sirens everywhere, I thought it was for the airshow but then I’ve never heard sirens so loud before," said a taxi driver surnamed Guo.

"Then the passenger said there’d been a hit-and-run, I didn’t realise it was so bad."

One Weibo user wrote: "Even in today's highly connected world, it took over 24 hours to learn about this incident."

Others expressed shock. "I don't know what to say, but I hope this kind of sickness does not spread," wrote one. The death toll "makes every pore on my body stand on end," said another.