Beijing, Jul 20: Man in a wheelchair was responsible for an explosion that rocked Beijing Capital International Airport, Chinese media said.
He allegedly attempted to blow himself up to protest a brutal police beating that left him disabled, Twitter reports claimed.
The suspect behind the blast in the arrivals hall of terminal three of the Beijing airport has been identified as 34-year-old Ji Zhongxing from Shangdong, CCTVNews reported.
The Sina Weibo microblog of state broadcaster China Central Television said a man detonated a package of black gunpowder used to make firecrackers just outside the international arrivals exit.
Local media quoted by the South China Morning Post said the man was rushed to hospital. His condition remains unknown.
Photos taken by one of the witnesses at the scene of the incident showed a man in a wheelchair, waving his arms in the air with a white object in one hand. Another photo supposedly taken shortly after the blast showed security staff attending to someone on the ground and an overturned wheelchair lying nearby.
Witnesses quoted on Twitter claimed the wheelchair-bound man waved his hands and shouted in an apparent attempt to attract attention before detonating the device.
Meanwhile, Twitter user Yifan Zhang, who is an ex-journalist according to his profile, has posted what he says is a petition by Zhongxing suggesting the bomber was protesting the brutal beating he allegedly received at the hands of police.
Zhang also posted an extremely graphic photo which he claims shows Zhongxing after the beating that left him paralyzed. The Twitter user also linked what he said was the crippled man's blog, quoting his last entry as saying, “almost without hope, petition road endless.”
No flights were affected and order has been restored at the airport.
