Saturday March 17 8:31 AM ET
China State TV: 108 Dead in 'Criminal' Blast
By Paul Eckert
SHIJIAZHUANG, China (Reuters) - More than 100 people were killed and 38 injured in explosions that tore through four residential blocks in the northern Chinese city of Shijiazhuang, state television said on Saturday.
It said a preliminary police investigation pointed to ''criminal elements'' being responsible for the back-to-back series of pre-dawn explosions on Friday.
The television report said 108 people were killed, but did not elaborate on what criminal activities might have been behind the blasts.
One struck just over block from the Communist Party headquarters in the heart of the capital of Hebei province, a center of China's declining textile industry 250 km (150 miles) southwest of Beijing.
It left in rubble an L-shaped, five-storey residential block of the Number 3 Cotton mill, home to at least 30 families.
Flowers were laid at the edge of the rubble on Saturday. Local people said they believed everyone in the building had been killed.
Another explosion brought down one of a line of five-storey apartment blocks, leaving the street looking like a row of teeth with one missing.
Ordinary Folk
The victims appeared to have been ordinary workers. No one living or working near the blast sites could figure out why they should be targeted.
``This is an anti-government act. The Party is too corrupt,'' said retired nurse Liu Guiyou.
``State enterprises are where the big money is being stolen.''
``Why take out your frustrations against the government on ordinary people? Who knows?'' a noodle stall owner said.
Local journalists said Shijiazhuang mayor Zhang Erchen was fired earlier this year, accused of ``economic crimes.''
Organized crime, wiped out in China after the Communist Party came to power in 1949, has re-emerged during the last two decades' pursuit of an open, ``socialist market'' economy.
State media have accused some local government and police of cooperating with crime bosses. Beijing is investigating two massive cases involving billions of dollars.
Seven people were sentenced to death in one case earlier this month and former national deputy police chief Li Jizhou went on trial accused of taking bribes from smugglers.
He is likely to face the death penalty.
Deaf Murderer Suspected
Another theory making the rounds in Shijizhuang was that the culprit was Jin Ruchao, a 41-year-old deaf man wanted for the March 9 murder of his girlfriend. Local newspapers carried a police notice offering a 50,000 yuan ($6,000) for his capture.
Jin was fired from the Number 3 cotton Mill in 1983 for hooliganism but kept a room in the factory's dormitory area.
``He wasn't able to live well and he wanted others to suffer, too -- this is what some people are saying,'' a Shijiazhuang taxi driver said. He conceded, however, that it would be hard for one
angry man to carry out multiple, coordinated blasts.
It was the second blast in Shijiazhuang within six months. Explosives are relatively easy to come by in China, unlike guns, which rarely get into private hands.
A series of small home-made bombs at department stores and buses injured 28 people in blasts in the city in September. Li Yonghui, accused of theft and blackmail, was later executed with a bullet to the back of the head for the blasts.
Unconfirmed reports at the time linked them to crime syndicates battling for control of the public transport system.
Friday's explosions were so powerful some people living near the Number 3 Cotton Mill thought an earthquake had struck.
``My whole bed was shaking,'' said one.
The State Council, China's cabinet, dispatched senior official Wang Zhongyu to offer sympathy. ``President Jiang Zemin and Premier Zhu Rongji are very concerned with the tragic explosions,'' Xinhua quoted him as saying.
Police threw a tight cordon around the whole city of well over 1 million on Friday, searching all vehicles and checking passengers' identity. Several foreign reporters trying to enter the city were turned back.
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