China's top leaders have urged "all-out efforts" to treat those injured in a car attack in southern China, one of the deadliest incidents in the country's recent history, as online posts asking what the attack says about Chinese society were censored.

The driver was apprehended as he tried to flee, local authorities said, adding that an initial investigation suggested he was resentful over a divorce settlement.

Officials in southern China ramped up security on Wednesday at the site of one of the country's deadliest mass-casualty events in years, snuffing out makeshift memorials to the 35 people killed when a man drove a car into a crowd at a sports complex.

By David Kirton ZHUHAI, China (Reuters) -Authorities in the southern Chinese city of Zhuhai removed wreaths, candles and even bottles of Chinese alcohol laid at the scene of the deadliest mass killing in the country in a decade,