World

Explosion In Tiananmen Square

February 15, 2000 / 7:01 AM EST / AP

A mental patient committed suicide Tuesday in Tiananmen Square, setting off explosives that killed himself and injured a South Korean tourist, Chinese police and state media said.

The explosion occurred around 4 p.m. when the square -- the symbolic center of China's political life -- is normally crowded with Chinese and foreign tourists. Immediately afterward, police cleared the square of people and closed it.

In a statement distributed to foreign reporters, police said Li Xiangshan, a mentally ill man from the central province of Hubei, set off the explosion to kill himself. Li was known to the police, having come to Beijing four times previously to appeal to Chinese leaders, a police official said.

The Xinhua News Agency, in a brief report, said a South Korean tourist suffered slight injuries. It identified the man who died as a farmer.

The blast occurred at a politically sensitive time. Police are on alert for protests by the outlawed Falun Gong spiritual movement, most of which have been centered in Tiananmen Square. Their last large-scale protest, ten days ago, ended in a police melee and with at least 50 arrests.

The police official, who identified himself only by his surname, Yu, said Li was not a member of Falun Gong. Yu and other officials refused to provide details on what type of device Li used.

In less than three weeks, the national legislature opens its annual session in the Great Hall of the People, an event that often draws protesters to adjacent Tiananmen Square. Tuesday, Beijing's municipal legislature began its yearly session, six miles to the north of the square.

After ordering people away, police walked in a line across the square from east to west, apparently scanning the ground for evidence or debris. Plastic green sheeting was erected around a lamppost in the square's center the site of the explosion. Fifteen yards away, a dented trash bin lay on its side, its lid tossed aside. A police officer also searched a nearby patch of grass with a metal detector.

Bombings are rare but not unheard of in the capital. Nearly three years ago, two bombs exploded near a shopping center and on a public bus going down one of Beijing's busiest streets. At least eight people were injured.

Although disgruntled unemployed workers were originally suspected, security forces now believe the bombs were set by Muslim separatists from Xinjiang in the northwest.

Two months later, in May 1997, police said a migrant worker used a bomb to commit suicide in Zhongshan Park, just off Tiananmen Square and near the offices of China's top leaders.