BEIJING – An explosion at a bus company killed an employee and
injured at least two others in central China on Saturday, state media
reported, days after a bombing spree in another city rattled the
country.
The explosion tore through a
second-floor storage room in a two-story building of the Chengdu City
Bus Group in the city of Chengdu, the reports said. Rescuers found an
older man covered in blood lying in the middle of the room, the website
of the state-run Sichuan Daily reported.
The
information office of the ruling Communist Party in Chengdu declined to
answer questions about the blast and referred to an online report. That
report identified the dead man as a 51-year-old bus company employee
and said two maintenance workers were injured by shattering glass.
Reports
said the cause of the explosion is under investigation. Homemade bombs
are a typical means for settling scores in China, since explosives,
fertilizers and other ingredients are readily available for
construction, farming and mining.
On Thursday,
a man described as upset over a long-running land dispute with the
government set off three bombs in the southern city of Fuzhou, killing
himself and two others and stirring sympathy among a public angry at
official corruption and indifference.
An
unknown before state media identified him as the culprit, Qian Mingqi
became an instant hero online. His blog drew hundreds of messages, many
of them admiring. His page on Sina Weibo, a Twitter-like micro-blogging
service, attracted more than 30,000 followers overnight before being
closed Friday.
State media reports did not link
Saturday's explosion in Chengdu with the earlier bombings, but social
media users were quick to do so. AP
