A van ploughed into pedestrians after veering onto a crowded sidewalk outside a Starbucks outlet in central Shanghai on Friday, leaving at least 18 people injured, three of them seriously, city authorities said.
A brief official announcement said the incident happened about 9.00 am (0100 GMT) when crowds of people would have been on their way to work.
Shanghai's Huangpu police say the man, who was driving a van with a licence plate from the Jiangxi province, was apparently smoking cigarettes while driving and may have been carrying dangerous material in the van.
They say the smoking caused the van to catch on fire.
The man, with the surname Chen, worked for a Shanghai metal product company and had no prior criminal record.
Investigations into the incident continue.
Unconfirmed video clips circulating on Chinese social media showed several people sprawled on the pavement and receiving medical treatment from fire and rescue personnel at the scene, located at People's Park in the heart of the city.
Other images that circulated on state-run social media platforms showed a fire burning inside the van, which had come to stop after apparently striking some fencing near the entrance to the Starbucks.
AFP journalists who arrived at the scene in the wake of the accident found the area had been quickly cleared by authorities. A small police presence was standing watch and damage to the fencing could be seen.
