'Bomber' targets China courthouse

Officials in the city of Guangyuan in Sichuan province said they suspected it was a suicide attack and said the dead man appeared to be the bomber.

There are few initial details but one account describes a man walking into the court with a bag of explosives.

In a similar attack last year, a farmer set off a bomb at a court in apparent anger at a court ruling against him.

The elderly man killed himself and four other people, including the president of the county court in north-west China.

The BBC's Rupert Wingfield-Hayes says there are millions of people in China who claim to have been mistreated by the government, the courts or the police.

Most vent their anger peacefully but in recent years a tiny but growing number have begun turning to violence, he says.