A suspected suicide bomber rammed the gates of the Chinese embassy in the Kyrgyz capital Bishek on Tuesday, killing himself and wounding three others, officials said.
An interior ministry spokesman said the car exploded inside the compound and quoted deputy prime minister Janysh Razakov as describing the blast as “a terrorist act”.
Police, who cordoned off the building and the adjacent area, and the GKNB state security service said they were investigating the incident, which occurred around 10am local time (5am Irish time).
China’s foreign ministry on Tuesday condemned the bombing, calling it an “extreme and violent attack”.
China also urged Kyrgyz authorities to “get to the bottom of the incident”, spokeswoman Hua Chunying told reporters at a regular press briefing in Beijing.
The three staff suffered minor injuries and have been taken to hospital, Hua said. No organisation has claimed responsibility for the incident, she added.
Authorities in Kyrgyzstan, a mostly Muslim former Soviet republic of 6 million people, routinely detain suspected Islamist militants accused of being linked to Islamic State, which actively recruits from central Asia.
An anti-Chinese militant group made up of ethnic Uighurs is also active in the region.
Reuters