Deadly blast at China kindergarten

BEIJING — A city government says seven people were killed and 59 injured in an explosion at the front gate of a kindergarten in eastern China as relatives were picking up their children at the end of the school day.

The Xuzhou city government in Jiangsu province said the blast at the Chuangxin kindergarten in Fengxian, which struck at 4:50 p.m. Thursday, was under investigation.

It wasn’t immediately clear whether the explosion was deliberately set or the result of an accident.

Videos purportedly from the scene and posted on social media showed children and adults lying on the ground, some bleeding. Clothing, shoes and other items were strewn on the ground beside pools of blood.

Kindergartens in China have been targeted before in apparent revenge attacks

An explosion struck the entrance to a kindergarten in eastern China on Thursday, police said. State media said there were casualties, and videos purportedly from the scene and posted on social media showed children and adults lying on the ground, some bleeding.

Police said the blast struck at 4:50 p.m. Thursday at the Chuangxin kindergarten in the city of Fengxian in Jiangsu province.

A cellphone camera video posted on the website of the official People’s Daily newspaper showed more than a dozen people lying motionless in front of the kindergarten’s steel sliding gate, with clothing, shoes and other items strewn on the ground beside pools of blood.