Vehicle ploughs into pedestrians; 18 hurt

Shanghai: A minivan on Friday caught fire and ploughed into pedestrians after veering onto a crowded sidewalk outside a Starbucks outlet in China’s financial hub Shanghai, injuring 18 persons, triggering fears that the crash was a terror attack. The police, however, said the crash was not intentional and it was an accident. The police has ruled the incident as a ‘traffic accident’, saying it occurred when flammable materials inside the car burst into flames, causing the van's 40-year-old driver to lose control of the vehicle. PTI