Another bomb explodes in Chinese city

At least seven people have been killed and dozens injured in a series of explosions in a small town in the southern Chinese region of Guangxi. Five people were killed immediately, two are still reported as missing and more than 50 were injured altogether.

The Ministry of Public Security said it was treating the blasts on Wednesday as a criminal act, and not terrorism.

The latest unrest comes one day after 17 parcel bombs exploded at multiple locations in Liucheng county, including government offices, on Wednesday.

Before this morning’s explosion, police had already arrested a suspect in the deadly string of bombings which all occurred within the space of a little more than an hour on Wednesday afternoon.

Police in Liucheng said they will hold a news conference later Thursday.

The six-storey building, near a local highway administrative bureau in Liucheng, the county seat, caused “some damage” according to local media reports, and Xinhua reported “bricks scattered around” the explosion site. “They sounded like someone was blasting rocks in the mountains”.

The explosions, which also hit a prison, a train station, a hospital and a shopping centre, were apparently placed in express delivery packages, Xinhua said. “It was very loud”, he said by phone.

Media images showed a collapsed building, smoke and streets strewn with rubble in Liuzhou in Guangxi region.

Xinhua news agency said the force of the blast had caused debris to rain down on a road opposite the building. It did not say whether there were any casualties from that blast or whether it was connected to the ones in Liucheng.