Blasts spark fears of Olympic terror

TWO people were killed yesterday in explosions aboard two public buses in a major Chinese city, police said, heightening security concerns only weeks before the Olympics.

The blasts occurred about an hour apart during morning rush hour traffic in downtown Kunming, the capital of southwest China’s Yunnan province, the city’s police department said in a statement.

“According to preliminary investigations, the explosions were cases of man-made, deliberate sabotage,” a spokesman with the Yunnan Public Security Bureau said.

The incidents add to tensions ahead of next month’s Beijing Olympics, which have been stoked by repeated government warnings about a dire terrorism threat facing the Games.

The government also has expressed deep concern about social unrest marring efforts to portray a harmonious and stable country ahead of the Olympics, amid recent violent protests in Yunnan and elsewhere.