Taiyuan man held in Shanxi blasts
Authorities say ex-con admitted setting bombs near Shanxi party offices to 'take revenge against society', but others see a potential scapegoat
A Taiyuan man has been detained as a suspect in connection with a series of blasts that killed one and injured eight near the Shanxi provincial Communist Party headquarters, police announced yesterday.
The capture of Feng Zhijun , a 41-year-old ex-convict from Taiyuan's Xinghualing district, came just one day before top party leaders gather in Beijing for a key policy meeting.
Feng was taken into custody around 2am yesterday, Xinhua reported. Police seized "a large amount of criminal evidence" from his home, including hand-made explosives and a vehicle authorities said he used to set up the bombs.
The bombings in downtown Taiyuan came just 10 days after a fiery crash in Beijing's Tiananmen Square that left five dead and 40 injured. Authorities have called the earlier incident a terrorist attack orchestrated by a Uygur separatist group.
Officials have so far provided no official characterisation of the Taiyuan incident. The Ministry of Public Security said last night that Feng admitted he wanted to "take revenge against the society", without elaborating.
Feng confessed to the police, but the case was still under investigation, Xinhua reported. He had served nine years in prison for a 1989 theft conviction.