Explosions rock south China city, killing 2

BEIJING - Explosions, some from car bombs, occurred within a half-hour outside three government buildings in a south China city Thursday, killing two people and wounding at least six others, officials said.

A car exploded outside the prosecutor's office in Fuzhou city around 9:15 a.m., then 10 minutes later an explosion went off at a district government building and 15 minutes later another car exploded outside a drug administration office, said an official at the information office of Jiangxi province, where Fuzhou is located. He declined to give his full name, identifying himself by the surname Zhang.

While Zhang said the cause of the explosions was being investigated, the Xinhua News Agency cited unidentified officials as saying the culprit was a farmer unhappy about the government's handling of a dispute.

Photos posted on a micro-blogging site showed blown-out window frames, glass shards on the ground and a shirtless man in shorts lying prone outside one government building.

Two people died in the explosions and six were wounded, said Zhang. Of the dead, one was found at the site of one explosion and the other died in a hospital, said the website of the Jiangxi Daily.

At the prosecutor's office, the explosion shattered many of the windows and a car was destroyed, while at least 10 vehicles were damaged at Fuzhou's Linchuan district government building, Xinhua said.

Homemade bombs are frequently used to settle scores in China, where fertilizer and explosives for construction are readily available and guns are tightly controlled. Earlier this month a bank cashier fired for stealing money hurled a gasoline bomb into the bank and injured dozens of people in western China.

A city of 4 million deep in farm country, Fuzhou has seen the fast, chaotic economic growth typical of many Chinese cities in recent years. Land disputes have occurred as development encroaches on farmland.

A clash between farmers and a demolition squad sent to tear down houses last September aroused attention on the Internet when three members of one farming family caught on fire — either intentionally as an act of protest or accidentally.