Asia-Pacific News

Petrol bomb injures dozens at Chinese bank

May 13, 2011, 6:48 GMT

Beijing - A petrol bomb injured dozens of people at a bank in north-western China's Gansu province on Friday, state media said.

The government's Xinhua news agency quoted a witness and local officials in Gansu's Tianzhu county as saying the attack injured at least 39 people, six of them seriously.

The petrol bomb was ignited around 8:30 am (0030 GMT) during a staff meeting at the Tianzhu Rural Credit Cooperative bank, the witness told the agency.

Ma Jun, a journalist with the state-run Gansu Television station, reported on his microblog that a former bank employee who was sacked for embezzlement was responsible for the attack.

Ma said the suspect fled after the attack. He reported that 19 people were seriously injured.

The agency's witness said he saw at least 10 people 'throwing themselves out of the window of the fourth-floor meeting room.'

Other badly burned people were carried away on stretchers, the witness said.

The local government had classed the incident as an arson attack, the agency said.