An explosion destroyed a small restaurant in a busy section of Beijing early yesterday in an incident that could to further raise tensions in the capital ahead of National Day celebrations on Thursday.
Police said the blast was caused by a gas explosion and Xinhua news agency said it injured three employees of the restaurant and an unknown number of passers-by.
Residents said the restaurant featured specialties from China’s northwestern Xinjiang region — the scene of deadly July riots by members of the Muslim Uighur minority that left nearly 200 people dead, according to the government.
The blast came amid a massive security clampdown in the Chinese capital to prevent disruptions to sensitive Oct. 1 celebrations marking the 60th anniversary of the founding of communist China.
The incident sent police swarming over the Xinjiekou area of central Beijing northwest of Tiananmen Square, sealing off nearby roads and pushing away onlookers.
Local resident Sun Jia, 43, said she was awakened by the explosion shortly before 9am and rushed from her home to see what had happened.
“I looked and I saw that the building was all crumbled and there was some smoke. And I saw a young man with blood all over the side of his head and one side of his body. It looked like his ear had been badly injured,” she said.
Sun said she did not see anyone else who had been hurt. The management of her residential building told her it was a gas explosion.
Those hurt in the blast were taken to hospital but their injuries were not life-threatening, Xinhua said, citing unnamed sources.
The report said the number of passers-by who were injured was not immediately known.
“According to the initial investigation, the explosion was an accident,” a policewoman said.
The building housing the restaurant had partially collapsed, a reporter at the scene said.
“It was a Xinjiang restaurant. All I heard was one loud boom,” said a man who runs a nearby convenience store.
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