A van driven by a suicide bomber exploded after ramming through a gate at the Chinese embassy in Kyrgyzstan on Tuesday, wounding three people, authorities said.
"As a result of the explosion, only the suicide bomber terrorist died. Security guards were injured," Kyrgyzstan's Deputy Prime Minister Jenish Razakov told journalists at the scene.
Razakov said the three wounded were all Kyrgyz employees of the embassy and they have been hospitalised. Local medics said their injuries were not serious.
Police sources told AFP that a Mitsubishi Delica van smashed through a gate at the embassy Tuesday morning before exploding in the centre of the compound close to the ambassador's residence.
A police source confirmed to AFP that the vehicle was driven by a suicide bomber and described the incident as a "terrorist attack".
China's foreign ministry condemned the attack as an "extreme and violent act" but refused to classify it as terrorism.
The security service of the ex-Soviet Central Asian nation -- which borders China -- said an "explosive device" had been placed inside the vehicle, an official said.
Kyrgyz law enforcement sources put the strength of the blast at equivalent of up to 10 kilogrammes of TNT and one said body parts thought to be from the attacker were found several hundred metres (yards) from the blast site.
Local residents told AFP that the blast had blown in their windows and caused their houses to shake.
Pictures posted on social media purporting to be from the embassy showed a gate smashed open and debris inside the compound.
An AFP journalist close to the scene said that damage could be seen on the embassy buildings and that police had cordoned off the area as emergency services worked.
Employees from the Chinese and nearby American embassy on the edge of the city were evacuated, the Kyrgyz emergency service said.
Impoverished majority-Muslim Kyrgyzstan has a history of political instability and battling Islamist extremism.
Security forces last year said they had engaged in several deadly shootouts with suspected "terrorists" in Bishkek.
Officials say that some 500 Kyrgyz are thought to have joined the ranks of Islamic State fighting in Syria and Iraq.
Three embassy workers were taken to hospital with injuries after the attack in the Kyrgyz capital
One of three suicide bombers who carried out a deadly attack blamed on Islamic State at the international airport in the Turkish city Istanbul in June was reported to be from Kyrgyzstan.
Chinese officials in Kyrgyzstan have previously been targeted, with one shot dead in 2000 in an attack blamed on radicals from China's Uighur minority.
Kyrgyzstan is gearing up to mark 25 years since independence from the Soviet Union with celebrations in Bishkek on Wednesday.
AFP
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