Homemade bomb injures 39 in China
Thirty-nine people were injured when a disgruntled former bank employee set off a homemade gasoline bomb in China’s northwestern Gansu province Friday, the New China News Agency reported.
Six people were seriously wounded. All of the injured were taken to a hospital.
Yang Xianwen, a former cashier who was fired in April over embezzlement charges, allegedly threw the bomb into a meeting room on the fifth floor of the Tianzhu County Rural Credit Union and fled the scene.
Survivors were reportedly seen jumping out of windows to escape the fire caused by the blast.
Bombings are rare in China although homemade explosives have been used by the Uighur minority, who have in the past clashed with the majority ethnic Han Chinese. Private gun ownership is banned.
On Tuesday, a man bombed a police station in the southern city of Wuhan after being detained the night before. Five police officers were lightly wounded in the attack.
Tommy Yang of The Times’ Beijing Bureau contributed to this report
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