A 26-year-old man from China’s Inner Mongolia region detonated a homemade bomb outside the US Embassy in Beijing on Thursday, injuring only himself, officials said.

Authorities identifying the suspect only by his surname, Jian, saying the native of the city of Tongliao injured his hand when he set off the crude device made from fireworks.

His motive was not known and the investigation is ongoing.

A US Embassy spokesman said there were no other injuries or property damage.

“There was an explosion at approximately 1pm today on the street outside the South East corner of the Embassy compound,” the Embassy said in a statement. “According to the Embassy’s Regional Security Officer, there was one individual who detonated a bomb.”

Witnesses told Reuters that they heard a blast near the embassy and felt tremors.

“I’d just arrived and started to queue and then heard a loud explosion about 100 meters away,” a 19-year-old high school student who gave his name as Li told reporters.

Li said the explosion happened as he arrived to apply for a US visa to take an exam in Los Angeles.

Li Shaohui, a 58-year-old sanitation worker, said some people screamed.
“I thought first there was big a car crash,” Li told Reuters, adding that the smoke had cleared quickly.

According to the state-run Global Times, police earlier took away a woman who sprayed herself with gasoline in a suspected self-immolation attempt outside the embassy.

It was unclear whether the woman’s actions were related to the later explosion, the paper said.

A witness who did not want to be identified told Reuters that he saw a middle-aged woman with two buckets of gasoline. On her back were the Chinese characters for “sue them.”

China and the US are in the middle of a trade dispute, but America remains a hugely popular destination for travel, education and immigration for Chinese citizens.

With Post wires