The explosion happened in a garbage can opposite the entrance to the Jiaokou Bus Station at Fang Village Boulevard and Xifangxing Road in Liwan District. The blast contained so much force that part of the container was destroyed.

A 50 year-old female sanitation worker injured in the blast was taken to No. 2 Zhongshan Hospital. The victim sustained injuries to her hands and was described by eyewitnesses as having a “face covered in blood”.

Police cordoned off the scene when other explosive devices were suspected to still be in the vicinity. At 2:10pm, a suspicious black duffle bag was taken from the entrance of a KFC restaurant along with another bag discovered at a later time. However, both searches found nothing suspicious.

The explosion is now attributed by police to fireworks that had been improperly discarded, reports CCTV News.

Photos: People’s Daily, Guangzhou Live

The first incident occurred at a clothing wholesalers’ market in Tianhe district at 8:31a.m., when a suspected thief yelled “knife attack” while being questioned by police . His shout sent onlookers running for their lives, leaving many clothing stores ravaged by the escaping crowds:

Clothes trampled by crowds. photo credit: Sina weibo user 洞庭西居士

The second, unrelated incident occurred in Liwan district at 12:20 p.m., when a fight broke out. The public scattered in panic, causing a bottle-neck in the hallway, the Jinyang Net reported on March 15, citing a statement by the city’s police bureau.

Later, in Haifeng County in Shanwei, a suspected bomb was reportedly placed in front of a McDonald’s in Lantian Square. The police arrived and cordoned the scene; but, soon discovered it was a false alarm. “It’s not a real bomb. We suspect it’s a vicious prank. The police are looking into the case now,” said one officer, quoted by Yangcheng Evening News on Sunday.

Here are some images of the scenes from the Lantian square and the “bombing device”:

Police cordoned the suspected area at Lantian Square. Photo credit: Sina weibo user 匿名告白在仁荣中学

The suspected bombing device placed in Lantian Square. Photo credit: 海丰吧

Similar rumours of knife attacks were also heard in Chengdu in Southwestern Sichuan Province. Last week, six people died as a result of a knife fight between two Uighur food vendors in Changsha, central Hunan Province.

Reverberations of the Kunming attack are expected to continue across the country, and it will likely take some time to calm the public’s nerves.

This may be the start of a trend judging by the actions of a man at a Bank of Communications in Shenzhen’s Longhua New Zone on Sunday (July 21). Unhappy with the service he was getting at the bank, he caused it to be cordoned off by police for three hours after claiming over the phone that there was a bomb in a red suitcase in the bank, Baoan Daily reports.

The bank was evacuated as soon as the call was made. Police arrived with sniffer dogs and an explosive ordnance team and indeed there was an unattended red suitcase in the bank. However, there turned out to be nothing in the suitcase.

The man was caught and is currently being detained in Longhua.

Shenzhen Airlines flight ZH9786 had just taken off from Hefei Airport in Anhui Province when an anonymous phone call was received that a bomb was on board. Shenzhen Airlines was informed immediately to land at the nearest possible place, which turned out to be Nanchang Airport. Nothing unusual was found on the plane following an inspection, media reports said.

According to Hefei Airport, a man called an airport service telephone to say a woman on board the flight had taken an explosive item on board. The woman was identified when the plane landed, but she wasn’t found to be carrying anything suspicious. Turns out her boyfriend may have been angry after a conflict with the woman, and probably phoned in the threat to embarrass her.

Photo Credit: Life Cherries