Flammable oil-like material carried on board by a passenger triggered Monday's bus fire in Shanghai that left three dead and 12 injuries, police said Tuesday. The police are not able to specify the nature of the oil, saying further investigation is underway.
The police are not able to specify the nature of the oil, saying further investigation is underway.
Not particularly newsworthy in and of itself. However, today during our break in listening comprehension class, our teacher casually asked us about the train crash near Qingdao, (northeast) China which killed 70 people and injured over 400. Then she told us that she did not believe the reason for the crash given in the news (i.e. excessive speed over part of a rail line being upgraded for the Olympics), and said she thinks that it was caused by people from Xinjiang, China's northwestern-most province that is inhabited predominantly by the native Muslim Uighur population. (At least, that's where I thought she said they were from. In our next class, however, two other students were certain she had said Xizang (Mandarin for Tibet), not Xinjiang.)
I told her, "You know, accidents like this happen in other countries, too," thinking of the derailment in Hyogo, Japan three years ago that killed 107 and injured 460 (the rookie conductor was speeding around a bend so as not to arrive late at the next station), among other accidents. But she firmly maintained that terrorism was involved.
When I asked her, "Do you think lots of other Chinese have the same suspicions as you do?" she answered, "Yes." Then she went on to say that the this bus fire over the weekend was probably also a terrorist act. She did not mention the news about two terrorist groups that allegedly were broken up in Xinjiang a few weeks ago, but I would not be surprised if that had influenced her thinking.
Searching online to determine just how widespread this conspiracy theory was, I found a partial translation of an article in the "sensationalistic" Hong Kong newspaper Apple Daily that also
has suggested a "suicide-style bombing" (自杀式炸巴士) by Xinjiang terrorist groups. ... Even more scary to the outside world is that the authorities could cover up the fact that the train in the Shandong collusion was the Olympic Games special promotion train. If they can seal off the truth about the Shanghai bus and they can seal off the situation about epidemics, what couldn't they not deceive the Chinese people and the rest of the world on?
Even more scary to the outside world is that the authorities could cover up the fact that the train in the Shandong collusion was the Olympic Games special promotion train. If they can seal off the truth about the Shanghai bus and they can seal off the situation about epidemics, what couldn't they not deceive the Chinese people and the rest of the world on?
This article and the news about the terrorist groups broken up in Xinjiang last month convince me that my teacher said Xinjiang, not Xizang (Tibet).
These accidents are tragic enough in and of themselves. But as one of my classmates pointed out, if, God forbid, more such incidents should happen before the Olympics, their tragedy will be magnified since it seems likely that suspicion against Uighur and even Tibetan "splittists" will only grow stronger. A language is a dialect with an army and navy.
Shanghai police seek handbag owner over bus fire -- china.org.cn
Shanghai police are looking for the person who allegedly brought a knitted handbag onto a No. 842 bus that may have started a fire that killed three people and injured another 12 on Monday, Beijing News reported today. The manually stitched bag, which was put two rows behind the driver's seat, suddenly "self-ignited," according to Liu Kai, a passenger on the bus now being treated for burns at Changhai Hospital. Other passengers have a similar recollection of what happened, but nobody remembered who carried the bag onboard, which was believed to contain flammable items, the report said.
Shanghai police are looking for the person who allegedly brought a knitted handbag onto a No. 842 bus that may have started a fire that killed three people and injured another 12 on Monday, Beijing News reported today.
The manually stitched bag, which was put two rows behind the driver's seat, suddenly "self-ignited," according to Liu Kai, a passenger on the bus now being treated for burns at Changhai Hospital.
Other passengers have a similar recollection of what happened, but nobody remembered who carried the bag onboard, which was believed to contain flammable items, the report said.
