BLAST RIPS BUS IN BEIJING; DISSENT MAY BE INCREASING.

Byline: The New York Times

An explosion rocked a bus during rush hour Friday evening on a crowded downtown street, alerting police to the possibility that recent bombings and unrest among Muslims in Western China had spread to the capital.

Hospitals counted at least eight serious injuries, and Reuters reported that two people were killed by the explosion. The authorities were silent, refusing to confirm the number of casualties or whether the explosion was caused by a bomb.

The blast appeared to be placed and timed for maximum impact. Not only did it occur in one of Beijing's most popular shopping areas, but it also came just two weeks after the death of Deng Xiaoping and during the two-week-long convening of China's legislature, the National People's Congress, when delegates from all over the country gather in Beijing.

The explosion appeared similar to three simultaneous bombings of buses Feb. 25 in Xinjiang, the Muslim region in Western China, which has been plagued by growing violence in recent months.

Terrorist attacks are extremely rare in China, where weapons are hard to obtain and where authorities are notoriously strict and harsh in punishment.

The explosion Friday evening occurred on a cream-and-red No. 22 bus as it passed through Xidan, a highly congested shopping area where a McDonald's is squeezed between a beeper store and a boutique. The area was closed off for several hours. Near midnight, only a handful of police were still at the site, where broken glass and other traces had been swept away.