Three coordinated explosions rocked a southern Chinese city Thursday morning, injuring at least five people, according to state media reports. The bombs exploded near municipal buildings in Fuzhou, a city of 3.9 million in Jiangxi province, injuring at least five people. (Update: State media now say two people have died and seven are injured.)
Here is some video shot after one of the explosions that shows extensive damage to the exterior of a building:
The first bomb, in a vehicle parked inside the gate of the local prosecutor’s office, went off at about 9:15 a.m., according to local media reports. A second bomb detonated at 9:30 a.m. at a district government office, and a third bomb, believed to be a car bomb like the first, went off at 9:45 a.m. outside a local office of the State Food and Drug Administration.
Images from the scene in Jiangxi showed huge plumes of smoke rising above multistory buildings and crowds of bewildered people milling about outside. The initial suspect in the blasts is a farmer who was unsatisfied with the outcome of a legal case, according to a report from the state-run Xinhua news service.
Such bombings aren’t unknown in China. Earlier this month a man lit a barrel filled with gasoline at a bank in the western province of Gansu, injuring 49. Police said the suspect was a disgruntled former employee who had been dismissed for attempted embezzlement.
