Three Set Themselves On Fire In Beijing

A source with knowledge of the situation said one of the men came from a Muslim minority in the north-western Xinjiang region.

Three men set themselves on fire in the heart of downtown Beijing on Wednesday, state media reported, and at least one of them may come from China's restive Uighur minority, sources said.

The trio ignited the blaze in their car at 3 p.m. (0700 GMT) at the intersection of the city's main thoroughfare and a high-end shopping street, the official Xinhua agency said, quoting a Beijing city spokesman.

A witness saw "some kind of incendiary device" explode when police wrenched open the door of a small silvery-grey car, with what looked like three Chinese flags attached to its roof.

A man was then pulled from the car and his apparently limp body later seen laid out on the street, the witness added, while other officers pulled a screaming woman from the passenger door of the partially smouldering vehicle. The Xinhua report made no mention of the woman passenger.

Police also removed piles of blankets and cans from the back seat of the car, said the witness, who was passing by on a bicycle and stopped to see what a crowd of around two hundred bystanders were looking at.

A source with knowledge of the situation said one of the men came from a Muslim minority in the north-western Xinjiang region, second only to Tibet as a security concern for Beijing.

Wednesday marks the Tibetan New Year, which many ethnic Tibetans have vowed to boycott in memory of people killed in riots and protests nearly a year ago. Tibetan parts of China are on high security alert.

There were no signs that the Beijing incident was related to the holiday.

The Beijing city spokesmen said it was not clear whether any of the three who set themselves ablaze had died or how badly burnt any survivors were.

By 5.30 pm the area had returned to normal.

In 2001, five people, who the government said belonged to the banned spiritual movement Falun Gong, set themselves on fire on Tiananmen Square, the symbolic political heart of China about 1 km (half a mile) to the west of Wednesday's fire. Falun Gong denied the five were members of the group.

In 2006, a man also set himself on fire there to protest not being paid, media said, but as a magnet for protest the square has very high security.