China letter bomb blasts

Bombs exploded in at least 13 locations in China's Guangxi region, a local newspaper cited police as saying. The suspected letter bombs hit a hospital, a shopping mall, a bus station, several government offices and a jail and dormitories for government workers, a police statement quoted by the local newspaper Nanguo Zaobao said.

According to Xinhua news agency, the 15 blasts killed at least seven people and injured dozens in Liuzhou city, capital of the Liucheng County, in Guangxi's south.

The city's police chief, Zhou Changqing, said that the blasts were triggered by explosive devices delivered in several mail packages, Chinese television CCTV reported. Zhou said the case was under investigation.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Public Security said it was not treating the case as a criminal act and not an act of terrorism. A 33-year-old local man, identified only as Wei, was being considered as a suspect, the ministry said, but did not provide any details on the identity of the person or his motive.

China has witnessed similar attacks on government offices, carried out by disgruntled citizens to draw attention to their grievances. In 2013, a man set off homemade bombs outside a provincial government office in the country's north, killing one person. In the same year, a vendor set fire to a bus in east China's Fujian province as a way of getting back at local officials.

mg/kms (AP, AFP)