$14,280 reward offered for blasts clue in Yunnan

By Wu Jiachun in Kunming and Zhang Haizhou in Beijing (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-07-23 06:45

The Kunming public security bureau Tuesday announced a 100,000-yuan ($14,280) reward for anyone providing information leading to the arrest of people behind Monday's bus blasts, and denied getting any text message giving prior warning of the incident.

Two persons were killed and 14 injured when explosions ripped through two buses on route No 54 on a busy street in Yunnan's provincial capital on Monday morning.

"Police did not get such a (prior warning) text message," Du Min, Kunming's deputy mayor and head of the city's public security bureau said in response to a Southern Metropolis Daily report that claimed some residents had received a text message in the early hours of Monday.

Policemen investigate at an explosion site in Kunming, capital of southwest China's Yunnan Province, July 21, 2008. Local police say that preliminary evidence indicates that two separate explosions were deliberately caused. [Xinhua] City official: Fatal Kunming bus blasts 'not terrorism'

The paper's report Tuesday said the message read: "The general mobilization of ants: hope citizens receiving this message avoid taking bus routes No 54, 64 and 84 tomorrow morning."

Du, however, conceded a similar text message could have been received. "But its content is unclear."

Police have asked Kunming residents, especially passengers who took buses on route 54 around the time of the blasts, cab drivers near the explosion sites and passersby to provide clues.

No specific evidence has been found to suggest the blasts were the handiwork of terrorists, he said. "We are still carrying out investigations, and we will inform the media when any new evidence is found."

The Foreign Ministry, too, denied their link with the Beijing Olympic Games. "There has been no evidence so far to suggest the incident is related to the Beijing Olympics," the ministry's spokesman Liu Jianchao told a regular briefing in Beijing Tuesday.