One person killed and eight injured in bomb attack that devastates Communist Party HQ in China

Several small bombs exploded in front of a
Communist Party building in the northern
Chinese city of Taiyuan on Wednesday, killing
one person and injuring another eight, state
media said.
The official Xinhua news agency said what
appeared to be small-scale bombs went off
outside an office building of the Shanxi
Provincial Committee of the Communist Party.
Taiyuan is the capital of Shanxi province.
'Judging from the scattering of small metal
balls, it is suspected that improvised bombs
exploded,' the news agency said.
There was no immediate explanation for the
attack. But such incidents are not uncommon
in China and underscore the government's
worries about stability in the world's second-
largest economy, with a widening gap between
rich and poor and growing anger at corruption
and environmental issues.
Photos circulated on Chinese social media sites
showed smoke filling the wide avenue where
the party office is located and vehicles with
blown out windows. Emergency trucks were
parked outside what appeared to be
undamaged buildings.
Xinhua cited residents as saying people in the
area scattered after as many as seven blasts
went off.
The microblog of the official People's Daily
newspaper said one person had been killed and
another eight were injured, including one
person with serious injuries.
The Chinese government blamed Islamists for
an attack in central Beijing last week when a
car ploughed through bystanders on the edge
of Tiananmen Square and burst into flames,
killing three people in the car and two
bystanders.
The incidents come as China ramps up security
before top leaders gather on Saturday for a
plenum meeting in Beijing to discuss key
reforms.
In 2011, a farmer bombed three government
buildings in Fuzhou city in Jiangxi province
after failing to get redress over seizure of his
land. Two people and the farmer were killed.
A 42-year-old farmer with terminal lung
cancer detonated a home-made device aboard
a bus in Fujian province in 2005, injuring 31
and killing himself, possibly to protest
prohibitive healthcare costs.