Society

Dozens injured in NW China bank blast

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2011-05-13 11:23

An ambulance is seen in front of a building of the Rural Credit Cooperatives in Tianzhu Tibetan autonomous county in the city of Wuwei after a blast went off Friday morning at the rural bank. At least 39 people were injured. [Photo/Xinhua]

Rescuers carry an injured employee on a stretch after a blast went off Friday morning at the Rural Credit Cooperatives in Tianzhu Tibetan autonomous county in the city of Wuwei. At least 39 people were injured. [Photo/Xinhua]

Latest: 11:45 pm Friday

The 19 people, who were seriously injured in an explosion Friday morning at a rural bank in northwest China's Gansu Province, were in stable conditions, doctors from a local hospital said.

The explosion left 49 people injured, among whom 19 people suffered serious burns on the face and hands while 33 suffered slight injuries, Wang Gui, vice president of the People's Hospital in Tianzhu Tibetan Autonomous County.

The injuries of the 19 people were not life-threathening, Wang said.

 

LANZHOU - At least 39 people were injured when a blast went off Friday morning at a rural bank in northwest China's Gansu Province, witnesses and the local government said.

The provincial government said six people were seriously wounded and another 33 suffered slight injuries. They were all being treated at the county hospital.

The government identified the accident as a case of "arson" in a press release issued at 11:30 am.

Blast went off at the Rural Credit Cooperatives in Tianzhu Tibetan autonomous county in the city of Wuwei at around 8:30 am, when all the bank employees were having a meeting.

A witness who declined to be named said someone ignited a homemade "gasoline bomb".

He said he saw more than 10 people throwing themselves out of the window of the fourth-floor meeting room, while many others, with charred bodies and limbs, were carried out of the building on stretchers.

Police cordoned off the street for investigation shortly after the accident.

Tianzhu County is 128 km from Lanzhou, the provincial capital. A third of the county's 210,000 residents are Tibetans.