Five dead after car crashes in Beijing's Tiananmen Square - China's First Terrorism Attack ?

Photo: Photos of a car in flames in front of the Forbidden City were posted on Weibo, China's equivalent of Twitter.

 

Five people were killed and dozens injured when a car ploughed into pedestrians and caught fire in Beijing's Tiananmen Square on Monday.

The blaze sent clouds of smoke billowing into the air near a giant portrait of Mao Zedong that dominates one end of the square, the site of pro-democracy protests in 1989 which were brutally crushed by the authorities.
Chinese police say the car veered off the road at the north of the square, crossed the barriers and caught fire.
"The incident led to five deaths and 38 injuries," Beijing police said on their verified account on Sina Weibo, a Chinese equivalent of Twitter.
The driver of the vehicle and two passengers were killed, along with two tourists, one a woman from the Philippines and the other a man from Guangdong province in southern China.
Three Philippine tourists and one Japanese were among the injured.
"I saw a car turn a bend and suddenly it was driving on the pavement, it happened fast but looked like it knocked people over," one eyewitness who did not want to be named told AFP.
"I heard an explosion and saw fire. The scene was very frightening.
"There were paramilitary police who told people to get back into their cars and stop taking pictures."

Photo: Tiananmen square was briefly evacuated after a car burst into flames after driving into a crowd.

 

Immediately after the crash a security operation swung into force on the vast square, the symbolic centre of the Chinese state.

Police erected high curtain-like barricades directly in front of the Mao portrait, blocking passers-by from viewing the scene.

The main road through the square was briefly closed, and police also evacuated the main part of the square.
There has been no explanation so far about the cause of the crash.

Witnesses and reports said the SUV vehicle drove along the pavement outside the Forbidden City before crashing - prompting speculation the incident was intentional.
"Is this the 2013 Tiananmen self-immolation incident?" asked the writer of one social media post. "There's still a person inside the car!"

Another pointed out that the vehicle had driven through a pedestrian area, adding: "It couldn't have been a car accident but was a premeditated event."

Foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said she did not know "the specifics" when asked whether there was any evidence of a terrorist attack.

Tiananmen Square is always under heavy security due to its proximity to the Zhongnanhai compound of the central leadership and due to the Great Hall of the People which overlooks the square. It is also the site of Mao's mausoleum.

But the square is still a magnet for protesters, especially around the June 4 anniversary of the crushing of the student-led demonstrations in 1989, though they are normally swiftly bundled away by police.
Firefighting equipment is placed around the square to prevent self-immolation protests.