Nine hurt in Chinese university blasts

Nine people were injured today by two home-made bombs that exploded at two of China’s top universities.

There were no immediate claims of responsibility for the lunchtime blasts that tore through cafeterias at Peking University and Tsinghua University about 90 minutes apart.

Both devices appeared to have contained home-made gunpowder, a Beijing police spokeswoman said. Both universities are in the north-west of the capital.

A motive for the attacks was unclear. The explosions came a day after a visit to Beijing by US Secretary of State Colin Powell and a week before China’s national legislature opens its annual session, but there was no indication of any connection to those events.

The first blast occurred in a teacher’s cafeteria at the centre of the Tsinghua University campus at 11:50am, a university spokeswoman said, adding that six people suffered leg injuries.

Witnesses said they could smell gunpowder in the air after the blast.

Police and campus guards blocked spectators who tried to look into the building to see the damage. Guards also blocked the street in front of the building, but other campus activities went on as normal.

Students said they had heard several people had been injured, but they did not have any details.

The university did not make any announcement to students about the blast.

At Peking University, three people were “slightly injured” in a second explosion in a dining hall at about 1:20pm. A university spokeswoman said the roof of the hall was damaged and the cause of the blast was being investigated.

Reporters who visited the campus saw a shattered glass door and damaged ceiling panels on the first floor and a window on the second storey that had been blown out.

Bomb attacks are often used in China when business and personal disputes turn violent. The government bans most private gun ownership, but explosives are widely available for mining and construction.