Three wounded in attack by suicide bomber on Chinese embassy in Kyrgyzstan

An explosion around the Chinese embassy in Kyrgyzstan killed and wounded several people, Interfax news agency cited a local emergency ministry’s representative as saying on Tuesday.

A suspected suicide bomber rammed the gates of the Chinese embassy in the Kyrgyz capital Bishek on Tuesday, killing himself and wounding three others, officials said.

Investigators, interior ministry officers and members of security forces work near the site of a bomb blast outside China's embassy in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. (Reuters Photo)

An interior ministry spokesperson said the car exploded inside the compound and quoted deputy Prime Minister Janysh Razakov as describing the blast as “a terrorist act”.

Police, who cordoned off the building and the adjacent area, and the GKNB state security service said they were investigating the incident, which occurred around 1000 local time (0400 GMT).

Authorities in Kyrgyzstan, a mostly Muslim former Soviet republic of 6 million people, routinely detain suspected Islamist militants accused of being linked to the Islamic State, which actively recruits from Central Asia.

An anti-Chinese militant group made up of ethnic Uighurs is also active in the region. In 2014, Kyrgyz border guards killed 11 people believed to be members of that group who had illegally crossed the Chinese-Kyrgyz border.