BEIJING, Oct 28 (Reuters) – Chinese police on Monday closed
the road which runs through Beijing’s sensitive Tiananmen
Square, the site of 1989 pro-democracy protests that were
bloodily suppressed by the government, and evacuated the area
following a fire, a Reuters witness said.
The Communist Party’s official People’s Daily said on its
website that a car had caught fire. It provided no other
details.
Beijing police, reached by telephone, said they had no
information. The Beijing government, also reached by telephone,
said it did not know what had happened.
The Reuters witness said he saw fire engines, an ambulance
and numerous police cars heading in the direction of the fire,
which sent a plume of black smoke into the sky.
The fire was on the north side of the square close to the
main entrance of the Forbidden City, upon which hangs a portrait
of the founder of Communist China, Mao Zedong. It was not clear
if the fire was on the road or the pavement or the square.
A foreign tourist who was on the square and asked not to be
identified said she heard an explosion followed by a fire.
Tiananmen Square is always under heavy security due to its
proximity to the Zhongnanhai compound of the central leadership
and the Great Hall of the People, where the country’s largely
rubber stamp parliament meets.
(Reporting by Maxim Duncan; Writing by Ben Blanchard; Editing
by Nick Macfie)
