A man in a wheelchair ignited a home-made bomb outside an arrivals exit at Beijing’s international airport, injuring himself but no others.
The official Xinhua News Agency cited witnesses in reporting that the explosion was heard at 6.24pm local time on Saturday, but gave no further details.
The man was reportedly injured and sent to a hospital after setting off the bomb in Terminal 3 of the airport.
China’s state broadcaster CCTV said the man injured in the blast was 34-year-old Ji Zhongxing from Heze in Shandong Province, according to the South China Morning Post.
Other media reported that the bomber is believed to be a petitioner, who was paralysed after he was beaten up by security squads when he was working in Dongguan.
A police officer at the scene confirmed that the man had used gun powder from fireworks in the bomb and his arm had been injured in the blast.
The state broadcaster said no one else was injured, no flights were affected and order has been restored at the airport.
Photos carried on Xinhua’s website carried captions citing witnesses as saying that a disabled person had ignited bombs on himself.
One photo showed several security and cleaning staff attending to someone on the ground, with an overturned wheelchair lying nearby.
Another, supposedly taken shortly before the blast, showed a man in a short-sleeved shirt sitting in a wheelchair waving his arms in the air, with a white object in one hand, as if in protest. The online user who posted the photo identified the man as the possible victim.
Reached over the phone, the airport’s news office said it was not aware of the explosion, and airport police declined to answer questions.
