Taxi driver is lone suspect in Taiyuan bomb blasts

A taxi driver is the lone suspect in the bomb blasts at an office building of Shanxi province's top Party committee in Taiyuan, authorities said on Friday.

Police said they detained Feng Zhijun, who is 41 and from Taiyuan, at 2 am on Friday at his home.

On Nov 6 at around 7:40 am, a number of small explosions killed one person and injured eight in front of the office building.

A task force, including experts sent from the Ministry of Public Security and Taiyuan police officers, was assigned to investigate the blasts. The task force said they found self-made explosives in Feng's home along with evidence that pointed to him as the suspect.

Police also said that Feng admitted to setting off the explosives in order to "take revenge" on society but did not elaborate.

A source within the police who declined to be named told China Daily that surveillance cameras captured footage of Feng's car near the front of the office building at the time of the blasts.

Feng has a junior-middle-school education and a criminal record. He had previously served a sentence of nine years for theft.

The anonymous source also revealed the partial identity of the person killed in the blasts as a 45-year-old man who worked at Shanxi province's consulting and service center for retirees.

Several of the victims who were injured in the blasts were receiving treatment in the emergency observation area of the No 1 Hospital Attached to Shanxi Medical University as of Wednesday.

China Daily could not reach any of the victims at the hospital due to tight police security.

Contact the writers at zhao-xinying@chinadaily.com.cn and chenghong@chinadaily.com.cn