BEIJING — A bus driver was sentenced to death in eastern China after ploughing towards a queue of waiting passengers and killing a motorcyclist, state media said Saturday.

A judge in Nanjing, capital of eastern Jiangsu province, ordered the execution on Friday after Wang Jianqiang, 50, was convicted of "threatening public security", Xinhua news agency said, citing court sources.

The court was told that Wang deliberately steered a bus towards passengers waiting at a bus stop in April, according to Xinhua, injuring two passengers, killing a motorcyclist and wrecking a taxi and another car.

Wang had been in a dispute with a colleague and was angry with action taken by the bus company in a bid to resolve the problem, the report said.

He was finally brought to a halt by another taxi and guards from a police station, Xinhua said.

China executes more people each year than any other country, according to rights group Amnesty International.

Of the 2,400 people reported executed around the world in 2008, 1,718 were in China, Amnesty said in a report in March.