A wheelchair man 'blows himself up' in arrivals hall at Beijing Airport

A man in a wheelchair set off a home-made bomb in the arrivals hall at Beijing Airport today.
The man was initially suspected to to have died in the blast in Terminal 3 at around 6.24pm local time, but Chinese state media has now said he survived and was taken to hospital.

 



Local media reported that the victim had his left arm amputated and was still under treatment at a Beijing hospital late Saturday night.

Police were investigating the incident, the official Xinhua news agency said.

China's state broadcaster CCTV said the man injured in the blast was 34-year-old Ji Zhongxing from Heze in Shandong Province. He set off a home-made explosive device packed with gunpowder from fireworks.

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.

He said the location of the explosion was close to the exit for international passengers at the arrival hall in Terminal 3.

CCTV did not elaborate on the man's condition, or on a possible motive for the blast.

The state broadcaster said no one else was injured, no flights were affected and order has been restored at the airport.

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. He is believed to have been petitioning the authorities for years.

Contacted over the phone, the airport’s news office earlier told the Associated Press it was not aware of the explosion, and airport police declined to answer questions.

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 a possible victim.

Photos on the Xinhua’s website carried captions citing the witnesses as saying a disabled person had ignited bombs on himself and that casualties were unknown.

The pictures showed medical workers attending to someone and people running through the terminal.