Chinese police hunt blast suspect

The bombings are the second to hit the city of Shijianzhuang in six months

In this story: Motive unknown 'Professional bombers' RELATED STORIES, SITES

SHIJIAZHUANG, China -- Officials in China have named a suspect they want to question following a series of explosions believed to have killed scores of people.

Officials say the man, believed to be deaf and with a criminal record, was a resident in the factory housing estates targetted in the blasts and his own apartment was demolished in the incident.

Reports from the state-run Xinhua News Agency have put the death toll from the explosions at 18, but local officials have said the final number of dead could be more than 200.

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Local newspapers published a picture of the suspect below reports that China's leaders sent a personal envoy to look into the explosions that tore through housing at four separate companies early Friday.

Jin Ruchao, 40, is wanted for a March 9 murder in southwestern China and unspecified "current ... extremely serious crimes," according to the notice.

Underscoring its urgency, it offered a reward of $6,000 -- the equivalent of nearly 10 years' wages for the average urban Chinese.

Motive unknown

Jin was a resident of worker housing for the No. 3 Cotton Mill, according to the notice.

That five-story building, which housed 48 families, was reduced to rubble by an explosion at about 4 a.m. on Friday. Local officials have said most of the deaths and injuries occurred there.

Police have not said officially whether the explosions were thought to be intentional.

Explosives believed responsible for latest blast are more easily obtained than guns

Residents at the scene said the incident might have been related to labor unrest centered on the No. 3 Cotton Mill, whose five-story staff quarters was flattened by the detonations.

The semi-official China News Services quoted Hebei Television as reporting that the incident was the work of criminals. No further details were given.

The first explosion in Shijiazhuang, capital of Hebei province 250 km (150 miles) southwest of Beijing, struck just a block away from the Communist Party headquarters right in the center of the city.

It reduced an L-shaped, five-floor residential block of the Number 3 Cotton mill, home to at least 30 families, to a pile of rubble.

'Professional bombers'

A local restaurant owner said the blasts were of such power and precision only a professional could have planned them.

"I don't believe the official (death toll) numbers," said retired nurse Liu Guiyou who lives just down the street from the cotton mill residential block.

"There has to be at least 100 dead here alone."

Another explosion brought down one of a band of small apartment blocks.

Two Chinese men read a wanted notice posted on the gate of an apartment complex in Shijiazhuang for s suspect in Friday's dormitory bombings

The victims appeared to have been ordinary workers from the town of 1.7 million people.

No-one living or working near the blast sites could understand why they should have been targeted.

"This is an anti-government act. The Party is too corrupt," said Liu. "State enterprises are where the big money is being stolen."

Local journalists said city mayor Zhang Erchen was fired earlier this year, accused of "economic crimes."

It is the second time in six months the city has been hit by explosives -- which are relatively easy to come by in China where they are widely used. Guns rarely get into private hands.

In September last year, 14 people were killed in the wake of four explosions in Shijiazhuang.

The man convicted and executed for that bombing, Li Yonghui, was later found to have been blackmailing the government for US$1 million and 1 million yuan.

The explosions in Shijiazhuang came just a day after Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji issued a rare public apology for an unrelated March 6 explosion.

That disaster at a village schoolhouse in southern China killed at least 42 people, most of them children.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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Shijiazhuang map and information
Shijiazhuang

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