An explosion near China’s embassy in Kyrgyzstan on Tuesday was a “suicide auto bombing attack”, state news agency Xinhua said, citing a Kyrgyz security official.
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China’s state-run Xinhua News Agency said in its report from Bishkek that the explosion killed the unidentified assailant and hurt a total of five people – two security guards and three local people working at the embassy.
The healthcare ministry earlier said the driver of the vehicle was killed and three people were injured.
Local medics said the driver of the auto was killed while two Kyrgyz embassy staff members and a woman sustained mild injuries in the blast.
Employees from the Chinese and nearby American embassy were evacuated, the Kyrgyz emergency service said.
It did not explain why the bombing should be regarded as a terrorist attack.
Kyrgyz security officials are at the scene conducting an investigation into the blast, which came a day before the nation marks its Independence Day. Deputy Prime Minister Zhenish Razakov told the Interfax news agency it was a suicide bombing.
France quickly condemned the attack and expressed solidarity with the staff of the Chinese embassy.
A local news site, 24.kg, reported that both the Chinese and US embassies were being evacuated.
Chinese officials in the country have previously been targeted, with one shot dead in 2000 in an attack blamed on radicals from China’s Uighur minority.
Footage circulating on social media shows smoke rising from the building in Bishkek.
Beijing’s financial stakes in Central Asia are tied to Xinjiang, the far western Chinese region that borders both Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, and is already bogged down with its own internal struggles.
About 500 Kyrgyz national are believed to have joined the ranks of Daesh, mainly active in Iraq and Syria, according to the government.
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In June, a Kyrgyz national was among three terrorists who attacked Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport, killing 44 people.
