At least 7 people were killed, two are missing and more than 50 have been injured after the explosion of a mysterious series of parcel bombs in various public places in the city of Liuzhou and the surrounding area in China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in the south. Among the affected facilities are the seat of local government, a hospital, a station, a shopping center and a market.
The series of 17 explosions, according to official Chinese media, occurred in just over an hour, midafternoon. Apparently, the explosive packages were distributed by courier, a ubiquitous service throughout China thanks to the boom in electronic commerce. According to official Chinese media, the police examined 60 other suspicious packages in case they might contain explosives.
The wave of bombings caused panic and confusion in the area. In social networks, residents rushed to hang pictures showing collapsed buildings, craters, wounded calling for help and widespread damage.
The official media have offered few details about the event. As usual in cases of incidents considered "sensitive", Chinese journalists have received instructions from the government of merely reproducing the information coming from official channels, as indicated by a leaked on Internet policy and that echoes the website "Shangaiist".
One thing that the Chinese media are allowed to publish itself is that Chinese police ruled that it is an "act of terrorism" organized, they say. Investigators have arrested a local resident, surnamed Wei and 33-year-old suspect. It may not be the only one: the television network CCTV mentioned in his Twitter account to witness statements the police to talk about "suspicious" (plural) that "paid messengers to hand over packages".
It is quite common in China, where access to justice is fraught with obstacles and the courts are not perceived as entities imparciales- some citizens who abused use force feel. While in previous cases it had not been given a similar combination of violence and level of organization.
In 2013, one person was killed and 8 were injured when a man detonated a series of homemade explosives outside a government building in Taiyuan, in northern China. Also that year, another man committed suicide and killed more than 40 people to set fire to the bus he was traveling in Fujian Province to protest against local authorities.
Explosions in Liuzhou have been all the more alarming as occurred a day before China's National Day, October 1, open the "golden week" holidays seven that make up one of the peak periods for domestic tourism . October 1 also marks a "significant" anniversary, the establishment of the autonomous region of Xinjiang.
