On November 11, 62-year-old Fan Weiqiu deliberately drove through people exercising outside a sports complex in his small SUV, the worst attack in China since 2014.

He was detained at the scene with self-inflicted knife wounds and fell into a coma, police said at the time.

His case was publicly tried on Friday, state broadcaster CCTV reported, with the verdict reached on the same day.

The court said the defendant's motives "were extremely vile, the nature of the crime extremely egregious, the methods particularly cruel, and the consequences particularly severe, posing significant harm to society", state media said.

In front of some of the victims' families, officials and members of the public, Fan pleaded guilty, it added.

The court found Fan had "decided to vent his anger" over "a broken marriage, personal frustrations, and dissatisfaction with the division of property after divorce", the report said.

- Anger online -

Violent crime is generally rare in China compared to many Western countries, but the country has seen a string of mass casualty incidents this year.

Stabbings and car attacks have challenged its reputation for good public security, unsettling residents and officials alike.

Some analysts have linked the incidents to growing anger and desperation at the country's slowing economy and a sense that society is becoming more stratified.

In Zhuhai, it took officials nearly 24 hours to reveal that dozens had died, and videos and discussion of the attack were censored on social media.

A makeshift memorial outside the sports centre was cleared within hours, with a worker telling AFP they were acting on an "order from the top".

The fury and shock ignited around the case was evident on social media on Friday, with comments on platform Weibo lauding the court for reaching a speedy decision, some calling for immediate execution.

One user said Fan "shouldn't be allowed to celebrate the New Year".

On Monday, a man who ploughed his car into a crowd of mostly school children in central China last month, injuring 30, was handed a suspended death sentence with a two-year reprieve.

The court found that the man had sought to "vent his emotions" over financial losses from investments and conflicts with family members, CCTV said.

Many Chinese social media users on Monday complained the sentence for that case was too light.