Blast at Chinese embassy in Kyrgyzstan leaves 1 dead

A Turkish official said in June that one of three suspected Islamic State suicide bombers involved in the deadly attack on Istanbul’s main airport was a Kyrgyz national. He also said that the attacker later succumbed to his injuries.

Kyrgyz news website 24.kg reported that the auto appeared to have rammed the embassy’s gate before exploding.

Kyrgyzstan’s security service sources said several hours after the attack that investigators were still working to identify the man found inside the auto after the explosion.

Chinese officials claimed a year ago ethnic Uighurs who once fought with the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq were returning to the region with plots to attack China.

Sputnik News said a statement from Bishkek’s emergency station’s chief physician suggested that two of the people injured were employees of the embassy. Two Chinese nationals-a diplomat and a businessman-were shot dead in June 2002 as they traveled in a vehicle in the Kyrgyz capital, prompting local police to investigate suspected links to Uighur separatism. The source, however, said that it is too early to call the incident a “terrorist attack”.

Locals told AFP their houses shook with the impact of the blast which shattered their windows.

Employees from the Chinese and nearby USA embassy on the edge of the city were evacuated, the Kyrgyz emergency service said.

This is a developing story and will be updated as more information becomes available.

The economically troubled ally of Russian Federation has seen twogovernments overthrown and ethnic violence claim hundreds oflives since it gained independence in 1991.

Bishkek has in recent months announced numerous foiled terror attacks by Daesh-affiliated elements across the Central Asian state.

No one has yet claimed responsibility for the attack.

In 2014 Kyrgyz authorities said they killed 11 people, including Uighur rebels, trying to cross into the country.