Blast occurs outside US Embassy in China

An explosion has taken place outside the US Embassy in the Chinese capital of Beijing, injuring one person, Chinese police say.

According to Press TV, police confirmed that a blast had occurred outside the US Embassy in Beijing on Thursday but said it had been caused by a suspected “firework device.”

Police said the blast wounded a 26-year-old male suspect and no one else.

Witnesses said there were seven to eight police vehicles near the Embassy, and the road next to the complex had been closed off.

The Embassy had earlier said that “a bomb” had exploded outside its perimeters and that police had responded, without elaborating.

The ruling Communist Party newspaper Global Times had also said in a different report that security forces outside the US Embassy “took away a woman spraying gasoline on herself in a suspected attempt at self-immolation” at around 11 a.m. local time on Thursday.

ME