• Reports of explosion in Terminal 3 at busy airport in Chinese capital
• Pictures posted online show man in wheelchair brandishing an object
• Believed to be a packet of gunpowder used to make firecrackers
• Another photo shows a wheelchair on its side in smoke-filled terminal
• State media says man was hospitalised and nobody else injured

A man in a wheelchair set off a home-made bomb in the arrivals hall at Beijing Airport today.

The man was initially suspected to to have died in the blast in Terminal 3 at around 6.24pm local time, but Chinese state media has now said he survived and was taken to hospital.

A photograph emerged online in the wake of the explosion showing a man in a wheelchair brandishing something in the air, along with another showing an empty wheelchair on its side in the smoke-filled arrivals hall.

Explosion: Photographs emerged online in the wake of the blast of a man in a wheelchair waving his arms in the air at Beijing Airport

Panic: Clouds of smoke filled the arrivals hall today after the man set off a home-made bomb in the busy airport

The picture shows a huddled group of people crouching around someone on the floor next to the over-turned wheelchair.

The man is thought to have detonated a package of gunpowder used to make firecrackers.

Several other pictures that cropped up on Weibo – the Chinese equivalent of Twitter – showed smoke filling the air above the crowds making their way through the terminal in the capital.

Hospitalised: This picture released by China's Xinhua agency shows police and paramedics attending to the man at Terminal 3

The South China Morning Post said online reports suggested the unidentified man in the wheelchair had died in the explosion.

But state-run China Central Television has said the man survived the blast and was taken to hospital after detonating the bomb.

It said there were no other injuries, that no flights had been affected, and that order had been restored at the airport.

Reached over the phone, the airport’s news office said it was not aware of the explosion, and airport police declined to answer questions.

Please follow and like us: