Explosions at Chinese shopping centre blamed on terminally ill murder suspect
- Bomber, 57, used blasts to take his own life after earlier in the day killing a man with whom he had been in a financial dispute, police say
- Suspect, who had been diagnosed with untreatable cancer, exploded bomb in underground car park before detonating others in his 30th floor flat
The explosions at a shopping centre that sent shock waves through a northeast China city on Friday were the work of a terminally ill man who used the blasts to take his own life after killing another man in a different town, police said on Saturday.
The murder suspect was identified by police in Changchun, capital of Jilin province, where the explosions happened, as a 57-year-old surnamed Guo.
According to a statement, Guo first blew up his car that was parked in the basement of the Wanda Shopping Plaza then detonated several more home-made devices in his rented flat on the 30th floor.
While the statement failed to give a precise timeline or explain Guo’s methods, video recordings and witness reports show the blasts happened within minutes of each other soon after 3pm.
While Guo was the only person killed in the explosions, police said on Friday that another person was injured, though they did not provide any further details.
The statement released on Saturday said that Guo had been identified with the help of video evidence and DNA samples. It said also that medical records showed he was suffering from terminal cancer.
Police said that on Friday morning Guo travelled to the city of Songyuan, also in Jilin, where he killed a man with whom he had been involved in a financial dispute. He returned to Changchun about noon, the statement said.
