One person is dead and eight are injured from explosions in China. These blasts happened near office buildings controlled by the Shanxi Communist Party Committee that is located in Taiyuan, China. The explosions began around 7:40 in the morning on Wednesday, local time.

According to the official Xinhua news agency, “Judging from the scattering of small metal balls, it is suspected that improvised bombs exploded.”

(image)

Witnesses claim that seven explosions were heard from what has presently been considered to be homemade bombs. The streets near the area were closed until 10:30 a.m. while police investigated the area. Heavy clouds of smoke remained in the air, and windows to nearby buses had been blown out as a result of the blast. Reports claim that as many as twenty vehicles in the vicinity of the explosions have been damaged.

Explosions kill 1, injure 8 in north China city: reports http://t.co/wygKfq0o8j

— Reuters Top News (@Reuters) November 6, 2013

(image)

According to eyewitness, Li Zhenzhen, who works in Taiyuan, “There were a lot of glass shards on the ground. There was blood on the ground.”

Security has been on extra alert since the October 28th attack involving a sport utility vehicle. The vehicle traveled through a crowd of pedestrians, killing 5 and injuring 40, before erupting into fire on the Tiananmen Gate that is located in Beijing.

These recent explosions have occurred on the eve of the Chinese Communist Party’s current Central Committee’s third plenum, which is a monumental meeting that focuses on the economic condition of the party. There is much speculation of who specifically fired the homemade bombs, especially considered the recent climate regarding displays of social unrest. The Chinese government has questioned whether the militant group (East Turkestan Islamic Movement) is responsible.

[Images Via Wikimedia Commons, Sina, and South China Morning Post News]