Car strikes crowd at China school, killing 5 and hurting 18

A car plowed into a crowd of children outside a primary school in northeastern China on Thursday, killing five people and injuring 18, a local government spokesman said.

The driver was taken into custody after the crash around noon in the coastal city of Huludao in Liaoning province, said the spokesman for Jianchang county in the city's suburbs, who declined to give his name as is standard with Chinese bureaucrats.

He described the crash as "a major traffic accident" and said the cause was under investigation.

State broadcaster CCTV reported all five dead and all but two of the injured were children.

Security camera footage showed a line of children crossing the street in front of their school when a car approaches, which then changes lanes and swerves into the crowd of children.