The gates of the sports complex in Zhuhai, China, were closed. Inside, the stadium is in darkness, as are the grounds surrounding it.

It was here, a few hours ago, where dozens of people were killed when a man drove an SUV into a crowd. Many others were injured.

Only security guards appeared to be moving behind the fence when the BBC arrived, and they had been ordered to monitor the arrival of any journalists.

One of them approached us and asked: “Are you journalists? When I asked him why he wanted to know, he said, “Oh, just to understand the situation.” »

He and a colleague took photos of us and started making calls, all the while observing us.

In front of the doors, people passed to see the consequences. But among them was a group of a dozen people more interested in us.

One woman began to call to the others: “Look, strangers, strangers.”

Soon, a man who was with her aggressively interrupted our reporting, grabbing me and shouting.

Often, when sensitive stories like this unfold in China, local Communist Party officials organize groups of cadres to pretend to be outraged locals who have been assigned the role of targeting foreign journalists and prevent any media coverage.

Invariably, this doesn’t stop the stories, it just makes China look bad.

After the death of former Premier Li Keqiang last year, crowds of these loyalists were sent onto the streets outside his former family home. Any journalist arriving was surrounded, shouted, pushed and mistreated.

Premier Li’s death was sensitive for the party, not only because it was sudden and unexpected, but also because he was the last of the old liberal wing. This indicated that the party was now made up entirely of loyalists of President Xi Jinping.

But even for much more minor incidents, the same things happen.

Last month, we visited a Shanghai shopping mall where a man had stabbed random strangers to death.

The entire place had been cleared of all evidence within hours of this horrific event. The next morning, the shopping center was back to normal operations: no police recording of the crime scene, no flowers for the dead.

In a way, you can understand this: many of these inexplicable attacks on the community are copycats in nature. Tuesday’s attack is no exception, although it is shocking because of the number of deaths.

But those in charge here sometimes want these bad things to go away as quickly as possible.

Hours after our confrontation in front of the site of the Zhuhai attack, carloads of police arrived to better manage the situation.

Crowds of residents also gathered to light candles in memory of the dead, and videos shared on social media showed lines of volunteers at hospitals offering to donate blood.

President Xi called on officials to handle the company’s problems to prevent this kind of situation from happening again in the future.

But, once again, China wonders what drove someone to such inconceivable horror. Finding the answers to this question is incredibly difficult.