Blasts Hit Two Govt Buildings in China, 2 Dead
A disgruntled farmer upset over a legal case was allegedly behind a series of explosions that struck government buildings in eastern China Thursday, killing two people and injuring six, state media said.
The three explosions went off in the city of Fuzhou in Jiangxi province at roughly 10-minute intervals shortly after 9:00 am (0100 GMT), an official with the provincial propaganda department surnamed Zhang told Agence France Presse.
The first was a car explosion in the parking garage of the city prosecutor's office, the second occurred on the first floor of a district government office, and the last was a car blast next to the city's food and drug agency, he said.
Xinhua news agency cited a local government source as saying the explosions were carried out by a disgruntled farmer angry over a case currently under review by legal authorities.
It gave no further details but said two people were dead and six hurt, three of them seriously.
The unusually brazen and premeditated incident is likely to add to official fears over possible public unrest stemming from a range of social grievances, with soaring inflation topping the list.
China sees thousands of protests and other public disturbances each year, often linked to anger over official corruption, government abuses and the illegal seizure of land for development.
Bomb attacks, while still rare, have been increasingly frequent in recent years and are typically carried out by individuals angry over perceived injustices, business disputes or other pressures associated with China's rapid modernization.
Photos posted on Jiangxi websites showed the prosecutors' building after the blast, with nearly all of the windows on one side completely blown out and debris scattered in front of the building.
The photos however did not appear to show any structural damage.
At least 10 vehicles were damaged in the Fuzhou explosions, Xinhua said, adding that the prosecutors' office and the Linchuan district government office are located just minutes apart.
Pictures posted on the Twitter-like microblog account of the official China News Service, apparently taken as the blasts were occurring, showed a white plume of smoke towering over crowds of onlookers.
Fuzhou has a population of 3.9 million, according to the local government. A much larger city of the same name is the capital of neighboring Fujian province.
More than 40 people were injured earlier this month when a disgruntled former employee set off a petrol bomb at a bank in a Tibetan-inhabited region of northwest China, according to authorities.
The attacker threw the petrol bomb into a room at the bank while a meeting was under way, triggering a fire.
Early last year, China saw a string of stabbing attacks at schools over a span of two months that left 17 people -- including 15 children -- dead and more than 80 injured.
The attacks were carried out by disgruntled loners or mentally unstable people and prompted national hand-wringing over China's focus on economic growth at the expense of addressing mental problems linked to head-spinning social change.
Source: Agence France Presse
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