Tractor driver kills 11 in drunken rampage



Eleven people were killed and more than a dozen injured after a drunken man went on the rampage behind the wheel of a tractor in northern China.



Li Xianliang was drinking when he killed a customer yesterday at the Hongyuan coal depot where he worked driving a shovel loader, the Yuanshi county government in Hebei province said.



The 38-year-old then continued on an hour-long spree, smashing into cars, buses, motorcycles, trucks and roadside shops.

Eleven people were killed and more than a dozen injured after a drunken man went on the rampage behind the wheel of a tractor in northern China

His tractor eventually came to a stop in a field where he was subdued by police and taken into custody.



He could face the death penalty if convicted of murder.



According to the news release, eight people were killed outright and 20 injured.

Li Xianliang smashed into cars, buses, motorcycles, trucks and roadside shops

A Yuanshi county spokesman, who refused to give his name, said another three people died in hospital.



Photographs posted to online news websites showed blankets covering the dead, vehicles smashed or flattened after being run over, and the fronts of shops torn out by the loader's powerful shovel.



China has seen a string of apparently unrelated rampage attacks this year, often by knife-wielding assailants targeting kindergartens and elementary schools.

Eight people were killed and 20 injured, the Yuanshi county government said

Fears of copycat attacks led the central government to limit coverage about the assaults, which have left more than two dozen people dead and scores wounded.



The grisly attacks, which have also included a courthouse shooting and random slashing attacks at markets and on a train, have prompted an increase in public security and calls for more attention to be paid to mental health problems which often go undiagnosed and untreated.