Death toll hits 17 after digger driver rampage

THE death toll yesterday rose to 17 after a drunk driver at the wheel of his digger tore through a rural community in northern China, residents said yesterday.

Families mourned at funerals across Yuanshi County in the northern province of Hebei, two days after Li Xianliang, 38, went on his killing spree.

Shattered buildings, crushed cars and splintered trees testified to the severity of the damage inflicted by the massive machine.

Li drove off in his loader on Sunday afternoon after killing his boss at the coal depot where he worked after the two fought about money while drinking.

Apparently picking his victims at random, Li smashed his way down a tree-lined road, running over motorcycles and small cars and ripping into buses. In some cases, he stopped to flip the vehicles with his bucket before crushing them under his wheels. The youngest victim was just five years old.

Villagers, some hanging onto the side of the vehicle, attempted to stop the mayhem, one of them stabbing Li several times with a kitchen knife.

Li drove back to the coal depot and, bleeding heavily, brandished a crowbar, but was overcome when villager Wang Xinjiang kicked him in the groin and pinned him to the ground.