Beijing (CNN)---Four
passengers were wounded after a man hurled an explosive device at a
check-in counter at Shanghai's Pudong International Airport on Sunday
afternoon, before attempting to kill himself.
"According
to the initial police investigation, a man took out a homemade
explosive device in a beer bottle from a bag he was carrying and threw
it in front of the check-in counters.
"After
the beer bottle exploded, the man took out a dagger from his bag,
slashed his own neck and collapsed on the floor," according to a
Shanghai Police press statement.
On
Monday, police identified the suspect as Zhou Xingbai, a 29-year-old
man originally from the southwestern province of Guizhou.
Police
said Zhou took several buses to make his way to the Pudong airport on
Sunday and committed the crime around 2:26 p.m. near check-in row C at
Terminal 2.
According
to the preliminary investigation, Zhou filled a beer bottle with
gunpowder from fireworks and firecrackers. Police said they have found
remnants of gunpowder in his residence in Kunshan, near Shanghai.
The assailant is currently in critical condition and being treated in hospital, police said.
Another
four passengers at the scene -- including a Filipino national -- were
slightly injured by broken glass from the blast and have been
hospitalized for treatment. The case is under further investigation, the
police statement added.
'Lost all his savings'
After
graduating from high school in 2006, Zhou became a migrant worker -
first in the southern province of Guangdong and later in the eastern
province of Jiangsu, according to the police statement.
He has been a worker at an electronics factory in Kunshan since early 2014 and has lived in the employee dormitory.
"After
Zhou became addicted to gambling, he had lost all his savings and
depended on borrowing money from friends to survive," police said.
"Before
the incident, Zhou said in a group chat on Wechat (social media
platform) that he had owed many people money and was ready to do
something so crazy that he would lose his life for it."
Pudong
is one of China's busiest aviation hubs, with more than 60 million
passengers passing through its two terminals last year.
Beijing blast
In 2013, a wheelchair-bound man set off a homemade explosive inside Beijing Capital International Airport after being prevented from airing a personal grievance.
According
to Xinhua, he was stopped from handing out leaflets "to get attention
to his complaints" outside the arrival hall. He then warned people
nearby to get away before setting off the device.
He was sentenced to six years in prison.
http://edition.cnn.com/2016/06/12/asia/shanghai-airport-explosion/index.html
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