SHANGHAI, June 12 (UPI) — At least four people were injured Sunday in an explosion at Shanghai Pudong International Airport after which the suspected attacker stabbed himself, security officials said.
The explosion took place at 2:36 p.m. near the Terminal 2 check-in counter, the Shanghai Municipal Public Security Bureau said in a statement.
A man removed a homemade explosive device from his backpack and dropped it in front of a check-in counter, the agency said. The device was contained in at least one beer bottle.
After the blast, “the man also took a knife from the backpack and slashed his own throat and fell to the ground,” the police said. The man was in grave condition.
The airport remained open although the affected area was cordoned off.
Four passengers, including a Philippine national, were being treated in a hospital with injuries from shards of glass.
The attack happened as travelers returned home after a public holiday and before Thursday’s opening of a Disney theme park in Shanghai.
In 2013, a homemade bomb detonated at Beijing International Airport by a man protesting what he said was retribution after security guards in southern China beat him in 2005, leaving him paralyzed and using a wheelchair. He was sentenced to six years in prison.
The Shanghai airport opened in 1999 and had 60 million passengers in 2015.
