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The American flag and the Chinese flag flutter in a hotel in Beijing Wednesday, September 5, 2012. US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is in Beijing to pressure Chinese authorities Their smaller neighbors on competing land claims in the South China Sea, but while it was starting its meetings here, China has questioned the declared neutrality of the United States. (Andy Wong / AP Photo)
This story is published by POLITICO as part of a content partnership with the South China Morning Post. 2018.
An explosive device exploded in front of the US Embbady in Beijing on Thursday afternoon, enveloping the capital's diplomatic district with white smoke and leaving blood and shards of glbad in the air. 39, exterior of the US pregnant
emba ssy said that no staff member was injured in the blast, which erupted around 1 pm on the street at l & # 39; Outside the southeast corner of the Embbady
witnesses said that the explosion occurred near the area. A spokesman for the US Embbady said that the explosion came from a bomb.
Beijing police believed that the explosion was the result of a "firework" of a 26-year-old man identified by his name. Jiang, from Inner Mongolia. In Mandarin, "fireworks" is a general term that can mean anything from firecrackers to explosives.
Without referring to the embbady, police said that the explosion took place at the intersection of Tianze and Anjialou streets. Jiang was sent to the hospital after suffering minor injuries to the hands, and the incident was the subject of investigation, police said.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said the explosion was an isolated incident. The embbady said in a statement: "According to the regional security officer of the embbady, there was an individual who blew up a bomb. Apart from the bomber, he did not have a bomb. There were no injuries. "
A student named Li, originally from Zhejiang Province, said he was queuing up to apply for a visa at the embbady when the explosion took place. Is produced. a very loud noise, similar to that of a pistol shot, within 100 meters of where I was standing, "he said. "Everyone started running, and I was pushed to go ahead." I was very scared. "When I turned to look, there was a white smoke as high that an electrical pole.
"We were stuck in the area of the visa line, and after a while everything was normal again."
Tang said that she arrived at the Embbady around 13:30 to apply for a visa, and the roads were blocked by the police
The services were quickly resumed at the embbady.
Shri Acquino Vimal, deputy chef de mission at the Indian Embbady in Beijing, about 150 meters from the US complex, he heard "a weak explosion and short-lived from the outside" around 1 pm
Another person working near the 39, American Embbady also said to have heard "a very loud sound."
Witness Li Lin said that she was on the 's places with someone else to apply for an American visa
"I heard a noise, then saw smoke flying through the air," he said. Li. "We were afraid of being too close, but we heard people screaming that there had been an explosion."
"I was a little nervous at the time, of course, because I did not know what was going on .. I was a little scared."
At around 3 pm, the police were cleaning up the ground near the site of the explosion and pedestrians were prohibited in the area.
Global Times quoted an eyewitness as saying the police took a woman who was using oil to try to s & # 39; The report could not be confirmed.
The Chinese censors also cleaned the social media of photos and videos of the incident, along with the report. Weibo microblogging platform – the Chinese equivalent of Twitter – suppressing messages with the hashtag "US Embbady Embbady"
.The incident was not the first case of an alleged attack in front of a US consulate in China In February 2015, a car hit barriers outside the US consulate in Shangha i, but the driver's motivation was not known
Additional reportage of Keegan Elmer, Jun Mai, Wu Wendy, Laura Zhou and Xinyan Yu and Tom Wang
