Bombs explode outside Communist Party offices in China

HONG KONG — In what appears to be China’s second terror attack in a week, six or more homemade bombs exploded Wednesday morning around a provincial Communist Party headquarters in the northern city of Taiyuan.

China’s state-run news agency Xinhua reports one death and eight injuries in the attack.

Police say that investigators have found steel ball bearings and electronic circuitry in the area, suggesting an improvised device. On social media, bystanders have shared pictures showing pellets, nails, and other detritus allegedly discovered following the attack.

Chinese network CCTV reported that 20 vehicles were damaged in the blasts. Witnesses posted photos of blown-out car windows and punctured tires.

The bombing comes just days before the beginning of one of the most sensitive events of the year, a meeting of top Communist Party officials in Beijing this weekend.

Last week, a Jeep plowed into pedestrians and burst into flame in the capital's Tiananmen Square, killing five and wounding 40. Officials called that earlier incident a terrorist attack by ethnically Turkic Uyghur separatists from the northwest province of Xinjiang.

Officials have not yet come forward with an explanation of Wednesday’s explosion, but one Chinese reporter claims that insiders at the Taiyuan Public Security Bureau are calling it terrorism. 

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