A suicide suspect accused of setting off homemade explosives in Shanghai Pudong airport last June has been arrested for causing an explosion, Pudong People's Procuratorate said yesterday.
The man, Zhou Xingbai, aged 29, from southwest China's Guizhou Province, said his sister had blamed him for not caring for their parents or financially supporting the family. He felt depressed after seeing that his peers were better off than he was, and he decided to commit suicide, prosecutors said.
But the accused did not want to die a nobody and so he decided to cause an explosion at Pudong International Airport, a busy international traffic hub, on July 12, prosecutors added.
It is alleged that the accused had noted on WeChat: "I would rather die in a crazy fashion than live like the walking dead."
On June 9 he is alleged to have bought fireworks in Kunshan City in neighboring Jiangsu Province, where he worked. He then transferred the gunpowder to three empty beer bottles to create explosive devices. Three days later he took a bus to Shanghai, prosecutors said.
The blast allegedly took place at 2:26pm on June 12, when Zhou lit the explosives and threw them at people queuing to check in. Three people were injured by a shattered window.
Zhou then took out a dagger, it was reported, and tried to kill himself. Though he slashed his neck, he survived. He claimed he chose a check-in counter in the airport's T2 building because it was less crowded and he did not want to set off the explosives in a crowded area and cause a stampede, said prosecutors.
