Three men set themselves ablaze in car in central Beijing (Roundup)

Feb 25, 2009, 12:12 GMT

   Beijing - Three men set themselves on fire in a car Wednesday on one of Beijing's most well-known shopping streets.

All three victims survived, two of them were injured, none of them serious, Beijing police told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

'Those people came to Beijing to personally voice some grievance,' the police spokesman said.

They set their car ablaze at the intersection of Wangfujing, a street in central Beijing known for its shopping, and Chang'an Avenue, a major east-west route in the Chinese capital, not far from Tiananmen Square, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

Police investigated the car, which sported a numberplate from outside Beijing, but 'suddenly a fire broke out, which could be put out quickly,' the spokesman said.

The motive for the attempted self-immolation remained unclear, Xinhua said, but it was was possible that they, like many others, came to Beijing to air grievances over some injustice.

Contrary to initial assumptions there was no indication that the event was connected to Wednesday's Tibetan New Year celebrations.

In January 2001 five members of the Falun Gong movement, which is banned in China, set themselves ablaze on Tiananmen Square. A woman and her 12-year-old daughter were killed in the incident.