Blast at China’s Kyrgyz embassy

A van driven by a suicide bomber exploded after ramming through a gate at the Chinese embassy in Kyrgyzstan on Tuesday, injuring three people, authorities said.

“As a result of the explosion, only the suicide bomber terrorist died. Security guards were injured,” Kyrgyzstan’s deputy prime minister Jenish Razakov said.

Mr Razakov said the three wounded were all Kyrgyz employees of the embassy and were hospitalised. Local medics said their injuries were not serious.

Impoverished majority-Muslim Kyrgyzstan — which borders western China — has a history of political instability and battling Islamist extremism. Authorities say the country faces the threat of attacks from Islamic State group jihadists after some 500 Kyrgyz left to fight for the group in Iraq and Syria.

Chinese officials have previously been targeted in attacks linked to radicals from China’s Uighur minority, which lives just across the border in the restive Xinjiang province. Law enforcement sources said that a Mitsubishi Delica van smashed through a gate at the embassy on Tuesday morning before exploding at the centre of the compound close to the ambassador’s residence.

A police source confirmed that the vehicle was driven by a suicide bomber and described the incident as a “terrorist attack”.

China’s foreign ministry condemned the attack as an “extreme and violent act” but refused to classify it as terrorism. “We asked the Kyrgyz side to get to the bottom of this incident and hold whoever is behind this accountable,” spokeswoman Hua Chunying said.

Kyrgyz officials have not yet blames any specific group, and President Almazbek Atambayev ordered a “thorough investigation”.

Sources said body parts thought to be of the attacker were found several hundred metres (yards) from the blast site. Locals said the blast had blown in their windows and caused their houses to shake.

Pictures posted on social media purporting to be from the embassy showed a gate smashed open and debris inside the compound.

Law enforcement officials also blocked traffic on one of the city’s main highways and were checking vehicles.

Employees from the Chinese and nearby American embassy on the edge of the city were evacuated, the Kyrgyz emergency service said.

An economically troubled ally of Russia, Kyrgyzstan has seen two governments overthrown and ethnic violence since it gained independence in 1991.