Four killed in bomb attack at fire scene

Four people were killed and dozens injured when a man threw a bomb at firefighters who were trying to put out a blaze in a workers' dormitory in Hubei province yesterday.

The attacker is believed to have committed suicide by setting fire to himself shortly after the incident, a witness said.

The China News Service said the bomb attack happened at 3am in a suburban district near Yichang after the workers' dormitory caught fire and about 10 residents were trapped inside.

Police, firefighters and rescue workers went to the scene after the alarm was raised. As they were helping trapped people to escape from the building, a man threw a bomb at the crowd, the report said.

Four people were killed, including a 12-year old child.

The report quoted a witness as saying that shortly after the explosion, the man believed to have thrown the bomb took his own life by setting himself on fire in an abandoned warehouse near the dormitory.

A spokesman for Yichang Fire Services Bureau said police were investigating.

'There was an explosion last night. Two people were killed immediately. The rest were sent to a hospital,' he said.