– Three Chinese government buildings bombed (Telegraph, 26 May, 2011):
Three Chinese government buildings have been bombed in the southern city of Fuzhou, in Jiangxi province, killing two and injuring six.
The first blast went off in the car park of the Fuzhou public prosecutor’s office just after nine o’clock this morning, as workers were arriving for the day.
Two other bombs went off in the following 30 minutes, one at the Linchuan district government building and another at the local pharmaceutical drug administration bureau.
The three buildings were within walking distance of each other and two of the bombs were left inside cars parked outside.
According to Xinhua, the state news agency, three of the six injured are critical. The bombings were initially blamed on a local farmer who was said to be upset at the progress of a court case, but Xinhua later said the cause of the attacks was still under investigation.
However, the coordination of the blasts and the use of car bombs pointed to a more sophisticated attacker, or group of attackers. “One farmer? Only if he was a member of al Qaeda,” said one comment on the Chinese internet.
Pictures posted on the internet showed an enormous mushroom cloud of smoke rising up outside one of the buildings and injured men lying prone on the ground. At least ten buildings were destroyed at the Linchuan government building, which is also the site of the city’s petitions office.
Under Chinese law, anyone with a grievance against the government can take it to the petitions office. Consequently, these offices are frequently the scene of confrontations with the authorities.
“According to witnesses, almost all the windows up to the eighth floor of the public prosecutor’s building were broken,” said Xinhua.
“Roadblocks have now been set up around the three sites.”