China arrests 'explosives supplier'

Jin Ruchao reportedly confessed to the bombings

Police in China have arrested a man for allegedly supplying explosives used in bomb attacks which killed 108 people, state media said on Tuesday.

Wang Yushun allegedly made the explosives to order for Jin Ruchao, who police say has confessed to the bombings in the northern city of Shijiazhuang.

Four blasts rocked the city

Mr Wang, an illegal explosives manufacturer, was paid $114 for supplying ammonium nitrate, packed in more than 10 yellow plastic bags marked "chicken feed", the state-run Xinhua news agency said.

He also taught Mr Jin, who police say acted alone, how to make bombs, the report said.

Western security experts have said it was virtually impossible for a single person to mastermind the coordinated series of blasts, which all took place within an hour at four different sites, some 15 minutes drive apart.

Taxis

According to the Xinhua report based on information from police, Mr Jin rushed between his targets using taxis to detonate each explosion personally on 16 March.

After the blasts, he then headed to the south of the country - 2,000 kilometres (1250 miles) away - to Beihai, a beach resort in Guanxi province, where he was arrested after one of the biggest police manhunts for nearly 20 years.

Security has been stepped up following the blasts

The partially deaf suspect, who often communicates through written notes, was said to have been motivated by revenge. He has also been accused of killing his girlfriend on 9 March.

The Hong Kong-based Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy says Mr Jin is being made a scapegoat.

The Xinhua report, carried in all major Chinese newspapers, details how Mr Jin allegedly operated on his own.

It said he detonated the first blast at about 0400 local time, dashed out and hailed a taxi to the next target. The report did not say whether the taxi driver was surprised to pick up someone running from the scene of a powerful explosion.

Disgruntled workers

Mr Jin then hailed another taxi to the site of the second attack, which went off at 0430 local time, before hiring taxis again to the third and fourth targets, Xinhua reported.

Damage was extensive

State media has said that the buildings damaged housed Mr Jin's stepmother, ex-wife and former neighbours against whom he bore grudges.

Mr Jin, who reportedly served a 10-year jail sentence for rape, was said to be a former worker at one cotton mill dismissed for "hooliganism".

There has been speculation that disgruntled factory workers could have been behind the blasts which went off at flats mainly housing cotton mill workers.

Bombings have been carried out by angry workers in the past and in recent years, more than one million textile workers have lost their jobs.