This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/30/china-explosions-reported-liuzhou-guangxi-public-buildings

The article has changed 3 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 0 Version 1
Chinese city hit by multiple explosions at public buildings Seven killed after series of bombs in Chinese city of Liuzhou
(about 3 hours later)
Multiple explosions have targeted public buildings in a small southern Chinese city, according to state media. A series of explosions targeting public buildings in a small city in southern China has killed at least seven people and injured more than 50, officials and state media have said.
At least three people have been killed and 13 injured in the blasts on Wednesday, which the official Xinhua news agency said took place in Liuzhou, in the Guangxi region. The Ministry of Public Security said it was treating the case as a criminal act, and not terrorism. It said a 33-year-old local man, identified only by his family name of Wei, was considered a suspect, but provided no further details, including a possible motive or whether the man had been detained.
Quoting local police, Xinhua said the explosions took place at a hospital, market, supermarket, bus station and government buildings including a township office, a centre for disease control and a dormitory building for government workers. A local Communist Party newspaper, the Guangxi Daily, cited police as saying there were 17 explosions in Liuzhou, in Liucheng county, leaving seven people dead, two missing and 51 injured. The paper also said the suspect had not been apprehended.
The state broadcaster CCTV reported that the the local police chief has called the case criminal in nature and said the blasts were triggered by explosive devices delivered in several mail packages. The explosions, which occurred between 3.15 p.m. and 5pm, hit a hospital, local markets, a shopping mall, a bus station and several government buildings, including a jail and dormitories for government workers, according to a police statement posted by the local newspaper Nanguo Zaobao.
“There were so many of them, and they were so loud, everyone in the county could hear them,” said a hotel employee who gave only his family name, Li. The hotel is near a township office building that was hit by one of the explosions.
“They sounded like someone was blasting rocks in the mountains,” Li said.
Zhou Changqing, the police chief for the city of Liuzhou, which has jurisdiction over Liucheng, said the blasts were triggered by explosive devices delivered in several mail packages, state broadcaster CCTV reported.
A supermarket employee said the store was evacuated immediately when an adjacent supermarket was hit by an explosion.
“All of us heard the blast. It was very loud,” he said by phone.
Photos posted online showed streets filled with smoke, strewn debris, dust clouds in the sky and the rubble from a five-storey building that had partially collapsed.
The official Xinhua News Agency reported that at least one more explosion hit downtown Liuzhou, away from Liucheng county. It did not say whether there were any casualties from that blast or whether it was connected to the ones in Liucheng.