Shanghai Bus Explosion: Terrorist Attack or Random Tragedy?

Just heard from my local Chinese friends that “an explosion” killed three people earlier this morning on one of Shanghai’s public transit buses (Route 842). Many of them are speculating that this may have been a terrorist attack (by none other than those dastardly Xinjiang “splitists” of course) while some have even expressed a certain apprehension with using the Shanghai metro now.

Speculation aside, the official media and police insist that the Line 842 incident was not an “explosion” and just a “fire.” Initial coverage by Xinhua said it was an explosion but has since been revised to the bus having caught on fire.

Original Xinhua quotation at Shanghaiist:

At least three people were killed in a bus explosion in Shanghai at about 9:00 a.m. Monday, according to fire fighters who rushed to the scene.

The cause of the explosion is not yet known.

Fire fighters estimated that there were about 50 passengers on board the No. 842 Bus, which suddenly exploded en route between the Guoxing Road and Shunguo Road in Yangpu District, to the northeast of Shanghai.

Current news copy at Xinhua:

Three people died and 12 were injured when a bus caught fire in Shanghai at about 9:00 a.m. on Monday, said police.

The cause of the fire was still under investigation. The injured have been sent to hospital, according to the police.

The fire was put out within half an hour. Fire fighters estimated there were about 50 passengers on board the route 842 bus.

The fire broke out when the bus was running along the Huangxing Road in Yangpu District, in the northeast of Shanghai.

Normal traffic around the accident site resumed at around 10:30a.m., as police had moved away the wreckage.

A witness said that passengers on the air-conditioned vehicle failed to open the windows and escape. The only way to get out the bus was through the door.

An elderly woman passenger said she saw the fire break out at the rear of the bus.

“It was chaos. I was holding my granddaughter, when people pushed me off the bus,” she said.

I don’t really want to add fuel to the fire (zing!) and I’m certainly not an expert nor a pyromanic but I do find a few things to be questionable:

1. For a fire to kill three and injure 20, it had to have been a pretty big fire that got pretty big pretty damn quickly…you know, *cough* like an “explosion.”
2. I’ve seen packed Chinese buses and I’ve seen packed Chinese buses empty with a quickness. Therefore, I find it pretty difficult to imagine 50 people vacating a bus so slowly, once someone begins screaming “fire!”, that three people actually had the time to burn to death. Moreover, people don’t actually burn to death that quickly.
3. Judging by how badly charred the bus appears in pictures, I’m forced to wonder about the “firefighters who rushed to the scene.”

Again, I’m neither an expert on explosions and fires nor was I an eyewitness. However, I do find some of the details to be counter-intuitive relative to the official story. Naturally, I certainly hope this was not a terrorist act and was just a horrible but random tragedy.

For more information and links to various Chinese news sources and pictures, visit Shanghaiist’s coverage here.