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China news tagged with: explosions (7)

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Explosion Occurs at Restaurant in Downtown Beijing (Updated with Photos)

A very brief Xinhua news report was posted on CRIEnglish.com:

An explosion occurred at a restaurant in downtown Beijing Friday morning, witnesses said.

A local resident surnamed Sun said he heard the explosion. Another surnamed Qiao said the restaurant at Xinjiekou collapsed after the explosion, burying some people in the debris.

AFP has a few more details:

A policewoman in the Xinjiekou area of the Chinese capital told AFP that the initial investigation indicated the blast was accidental. She said she did not yet know whether anyone had been injured.

Above photos are from twitpic.com, the site is already being blocked by the Great Firewall.

The restaurant is located here. The updated Xinhua report has said it was gas cylinder explosion.
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- September 24, 2009 9:01 PM
City In China’s West Locks Down After Bombings

From AP:

Soldiers with machine guns guarded the sidewalks and police yelled at residents who tried to leave their homes Sunday, hours after officers battled bomb-tossing assailants in the second daring attack in a week in China’s restive Muslim territory.

The attackers were able to launch a series of pre-dawn bombings in the rugged Xinjiang region, far from the Beijing Olympics, despite tightened security for the games.

The violence, which police say killed 10 assailants and one security guard, also came just days after a militant Islamic group linked to al-Qaida issued a new warning it would strike during the Olympics.

No group has claimed responsibility for Sunday’s attack in Kuqa county, and police have not released any evidence that a terrorist organization was involved. But tensions in Xinjiang have been simmering for decades between the Muslim minority Uighur people and the Han Chinese who are about 90 percent of the nation’s population.

Read also New Spasm of Violence in Western China as 11 Die in Wave of Bombings by Jim Yardley.
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- August 10, 2008 8:57 PM
Blasts in China’s Xinjiang Region (Updated)

From BBC:

Several explosions have hit the north-western Chinese province of Xinjiang, state media has reported.

It said there was sporadic gunfire after the blasts, but there were no immediate reports of casualties.

Earlier this week, 16 Chinese policemen were killed in an attack on a border post in the province, Xinhua reported.

Xinjiang is home to many Muslim Uighur people. Uighur separatists there have waged a low-level campaign against Chinese rule for decades.

Xinhua’s report is here.

Update on 8:30 pm August 9, 2008

New deadly bomb attacks rock China’s Muslim west from AFP.

Bombings in a northwestern Chinese town on Sunday targetted a police station and commercial buildings, state run press reported, adding two policemen were injured and five attackers killed.

Witnesses saw people throw home-made explosives at the police station as well as industrial and commerical offices in Kuqa town, in the mainly Muslim Xinjiang region, state press reported.

“Two police officers and a security guard were injured, and two police cars were destroyed,” Xinhua said, citing a local police spokesman.

“Police (also) killed five attackers at the scene.”

The explosions shook the town of Kuqa between 3:20 am (1920 GMT Saturday) and 4:00 am (2000 GMT), Xinhua news agency said.
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- August 9, 2008 3:56 PM
Video: China Downplays Claims of a Jihad

From the Sidney Morning Herald:

Chinese authorities have downplayed claims by a militant Islamic group that it is responsible for a string of fatal bus bombings and other incidents and is planning a jihad against the Olympic Games.

China has been warning for months that terrorism, especially from Muslim Uygur separatists in its western Xinjiang province, poses the greatest threat to a successful Games.

But police and officials have now rejected a claim by the little-known Turkestan Islamic Party that it has already successfully carried out several such attacks, including the twin bus bombings in Yunnan this month that killed two people, and a bus explosion in Shanghai in May that killed three.

A Chinese security expert in Beijing said the group’s claim of responsibility was probably just an attempt to terrorise the public and upset the Olympics.

Also from The Time magazine:

The video seemed to fit the Islamist terror profile. Incantatory music precedes the footage of a white turbaned man, his face shrouded in white cloth, dressed in military fatigues, flanked by two similarly uniformed comrades whose identities are hidden by black commando face masks. In the video, a previously little known group calling itself the Turkestan Islamic Party claims it carried out several fatal bombings in the country in recent months. The group’s self-described military commander, Seyfullah, said it was responsible for incidents in Shanghai in early May and in the southern city of Kunming on July 21 that killed a total of five people. He also said the group had bombed a plastics factory in the province of Guangdong. Most ominously, he threatened to carry out further attacks during the Beijing Olympics, which are scheduled to open on August 8. Indeed, the video begins with Beijing’s Olympic logo in flames and with a grainy image of a sports facility superimposed with an animated bomb blast.

But was it a serious threat? The three minute video, which was obtained under unspecified circumstances by the Intelcenter, a Washington D.C. company that specializes in collecting counter terrorism information, was greeted with skepticism both in and out of China. Police in Shanghai and Kunming said the blasts weren’t related to opposition to Chinese rule by ethnic Uighur Muslims in the country’s far western province of Xinjiang. Police in Guangdong province also said they had no record of an explosion on the date mentioned in the video.

Video: Islamic Party Threatens Beijing Olympic Games

Reuters news video: Shanghai bus explosion.

Reuters news video: Kunming bus explosion.
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- July 27, 2008 10:32 AM
Three Killed in Bus Explosions in China

“Police say at least two blasts targeting buses in Kunming, the capital of Yunan province, were acts of ’sabotage.’ Thirteen were injured in the attacks.” Barbara Demick reports in the LA Times:

Explosions this morning in the southern Chinese city of Kunming killed at least three people and injured 13 in what appears to have been a coordinated terrorist attack.

One explosion at 7:05 a.m. on a commuter bus was followed by another an hour later on a bus downtown.

Chinese police have not yet given any explanation other than to say that the attacks were “sabotage,” according to the New China News Agency.

There were unconfirmed reports in Chinese state media that there had been a third explosion.

Passengers on the second bus told a local newspaper, Life Daily News, that they saw two men leave an unidentified object on board.

“Later, two men got off the bus, then it exploded. One-third of the bus was seriously damaged. The fire wasn’t very big, but the smoke was dense and there were strong odors,” the newspaper reported. One person was killed in the second bus explosion, and two in the earlier one.

Article on the International Herald Tribune is here.
Photos are from Chinese BBS wnxuecity.com

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- July 21, 2008 11:08 AM
Bus Explosion Kills at Least 14 in East China (Updated)

From Xinhua:

At least 14 people were killed in an explosion after a bus and a tractor collided in east China’s Zhejiang Province Saturday afternoon, local police said.

The collision happened at about 1:54 p.m. in Yongzhong town, Longwan District of Wenzhou City, Zhejiang. The bus blew up and 13people died at the scene, and another in hospital, said local police.

Photos are from boxun.com:

UPDATE: According to netease.com, the Wenzhou police later announced that the explosion was manmade. However, they said explosives were not found on the bus, but were on a tractor which crashed into the bus by accident. The total death toll was 18, and 27 people were wounded, according to Wenzhou police.

“赌博村”制造爆炸 18人死27人伤
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- May 17, 2008 10:25 AM
Chinese Fireworks Blast Kills 16 – BBC News

From BBC News:

An explosion at an unlicensed fireworks factory in south-west China has killed at least 16 people and injured 15 more, state media has said.

The blast happened early on Sunday morning at a workshop in Chongqing province ’s Xiushan county, Xinhua news agency reported. Three houses were destroyed and at least one person was reported missing. Rescuers were searching through the rubble and the number of casualties could rise, Xinhua said. [Full Text]

[Image: Xiushan's location, from BBC News.]
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- October 23, 2007 9:42 AM