The Wall Street Journal’s China Journal is reporting that amidst the deafening fireworks in Shanghai during the Chinese New Year, another explosion went off with little notice:
But whatever went off there that day, it wasn’t part of normal celebrating. The address is the headquarters of the Shanghai Public Security Bureau-– the police. And the explosions were triggered by a man dressed in camouflage clothes and carrying crude weaponry. He died at the scene, possibly in a suicide raid.
That was the word Thursday from Xiaoxiang Morning Post, the government mouthpiece newspaper in Changsha, capital of Hunan Province (in Chinese here). The report says that China’s Ministry of Public Security has circulated an urgent nationwide notice on behalf of Shanghai authorities offering a 100,000 yuan (about $13,000) reward for information about the man – including any information about his possible motive. It says the dead man is believe to have been about 25 years old, 169 centimeters tall, with short hair, moles on his left shoulder and thick calloused hands that suggested a life of manual labor.
Also included in the new notice were two photos, apparently mug shots. Police identified the man by a pseudonym, “Huang Rong,” and said he had a 2007 arrest record from the city of Shenzhen for carrying illegal knives.
A police source familiar with the notice says the Changsha newspaper report is accurate correct. A spokesman for Shanghai’s Public Security Bureau would only say that no such notice has been made public.
