In Shijiazhuang, the explosions on March 16 reduced a five-storey dormitory building for the No 3 Cotton Mill to rubble at about 4am. There were other blasts at blocks of flats for a second cotton mill, for a construction company and for a railway agency. The few pictures released showed buried people, dead and alive, being extricated by grim workers. The No 3 dormitory is a short walk from the headquarters of the Communist party in Shijiazhuang, provincial capital of the northern province of Hebei and a centre for the declining textile industry. Senior party officials hurried to the scenebut domestic and foreign journalists were prevented from reporting the disaster.
Explosives are widely available in China and are sometimes used by individuals with grudges.
Posters calling for Mr Jin's detention appeared within a day in the national media. He lived in one of the targeted buildings, his father and stepmother lived in a second, and his ex-wife and her parents in two others. Mr Jin was in dispute with his aunt over some property in the fourth building. He should not be hard to identify. His gaunt features are distinctive and he uses a pen and paper to communicate because he is deaf.