Blast at bus company kills 1 in central China

BEIJING – An explosion at a bus company killed an employee and injured at least two others in central China on Saturday, state media reported, days after a bombing spree in another city rattled the country.

The explosion tore through a second-floor storage room in a two-story building of the Chengdu City Bus Group in the city of Chengdu, the reports said. Rescuers found an older man covered in blood lying in the middle of the room, the website of the state-run Sichuan Daily reported.

The information office of the ruling Communist Party in Chengdu declined to answer questions about the blast and referred to an online report. That report identified the dead man as a 51-year-old bus company employee and said two maintenance workers were injured by shattering glass.

Reports said the cause of the explosion is under investigation. Homemade bombs are a typical means for settling scores in China, since explosives, fertilizers and other ingredients are readily available for construction, farming and mining.

On Thursday, a man described as upset over a long-running land dispute with the government set off three bombs in the southern city of Fuzhou, killing himself and two others and stirring sympathy among a public angry at official corruption and indifference.

An unknown before state media identified him as the culprit, Qian Mingqi became an instant hero online. His blog drew hundreds of messages, many of them admiring. His page on Sina Weibo, a Twitter-like micro-blogging service, attracted more than 30,000 followers overnight before being closed Friday.

State media reports did not link Saturday's explosion in Chengdu with the earlier bombings, but social media users were quick to do so.