Deadly blasts in eastern China

One of the three blasts that struck the city of Fuzhou on Thursday [Courtesy of Chinese media]

Explosions are reported at three government buildings in an eastern Chinese city, possibly caused by explosions in cars, according to state media.

The blasts killed two people and injured six, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

The nearly simultaneous blasts happened in Fuzhou city, Jiangxi province, on Thursday morning, the official Xinhua news agency reported. It did not give details of the cause or casualties.

Al Jazeera’s Andrew Thomas reported from Beijing that all three explosions occurred within half an hour of each other.

A car exploded outside the prosecutor’s office in Fuzhou city, then 10 minutes later an explosion went off at a district government building. Fifteen minutes after that, a car exploded outside a drug administration office, said an official at the information office of Jiangxi province.

Fuzhou officials said there were no suspects in custody yet, Thomas said.

The blast at the prosecutor’s office blew out windows and destroyed a car, Xinhua reported. At least 10 vehicles were damaged at Fuzhou’s Linchuan district government building.

Zhang Weizhang, a local man, told Reuters it was possible a disgruntled local resident was to blame.

“There are plenty of people complaining about the government. They ignore complaints. They’ve ignored mine,” Zhang said, explaining that he was in a dispute over forestry rights in Fuzhou’s Linchuan district.

“But nobody ordinary would do something like this. This isn’t normal for here.”

Earlier this month a bank cashier who had been fired for stealing money hurled a gasoline bomb into the bank, injuring dozens of people in western China.

A city of four million, deep in farming country, Fuzhou has experienced the fast, chaotic economic growth typical of many Chinese cities in recent years.