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BEIJING: A petrol bomb set off at a rural bank in northwestern China’s Gansu province has caused a “significant” number of deaths and injuries, with a witness saying people jumped from the damaged building, state news agency Xinhua said on Friday.
“Someone ignited a gasoline bomb at 9 am during an internal meeting at the bank in Tianzhu Tibetan Autonomous County in the city of Wuwei, a witness said on condition of anonymity,” Xinhua said in an English-language report.
“The exact number of casualties were not immediately known, but the witness said he saw some people throwing themselves out of the window of the fourth-floor meeting room, while the injured people, with their bodies being charred, were carried out of the building on stretchers,” it added.
Xinhua did not give details on the number of casualties, nor did it disclose the name of the bank.
Officials in Tianzhu contacted by telephone declined to comment.
Tianzhu is some 140 km northwest of provincial capital Lanzhou, and is in a part of Gansu populated by ethnic Tibetans, though Xinhua did not say whether there was any Tibetan involvement.
Bomb attacks are rare in China, although disgruntled residents have set off explosions in buses and buildings in the past to complain about local grievances.
There have also been bomb attacks by militants in the far western region of Xinjiang, where members of the Muslim Uighur minority chafe at Chinese controls.
