Beijing: A grandmother cradling a screaming toddler, within centimetres of a woman's prone body, her clothes burnt off.
The images from the immediate aftermath of an explosion at a kindergarten gate in eastern Jiangsu province, as parents arrived to collect their children, have horrified China.
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Blast at kindergarten kills seven
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WARNING, DISTRESSING IMAGES: Two people died at the scene and five later died in hospital after an explosion near a kindergarten in east China's Jiangsu Province.
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Blast at kindergarten kills seven
WARNING, DISTRESSING IMAGES: Two people died at the scene and five later died in hospital after an explosion near a kindergarten in east China's Jiangsu Province.
Investigators say a homemade bomb was used.
The suspect, a 22-year-old identified as Xu, is among the dead, the Xuzhou city government said.
Police say the suspect was identified primarily using security camera footage and DNA collected at the blast scene. They provided no motive.
Investigators say they found materials for making a homemade bomb at Xu's nearby residence. They say emblazoned on the walls of the residence were the Chinese characters for "death" and "disaster".
At least eight people have have died. Two people were found dead near the kindergarten's entrance, and six others died later at a hospital, the local government said.
Eight people were in a critical condition and receiving treatment at a Xuzhou hospital on Friday morning. Sixty-five others were being treated at two county hospitals, officials said.
Local officials said the explosion occurred around 4.50pm on Thursday.
Many family members were lying on the ground, their clothes covered in blood. Witnesses said others were on the ground unable to move, not only adults but also children.
Local newspaper Xiandaikuaibao reported that the blast appeared to have been caused by a cooking gas container. Witnesses said on social media that the explosion might have occurred at a nearby food stall.
The mayor of Xuzhou, Zhou Tiegen, told reporters that none of the casualties were from the kindergarten.
"We've checked and at the time of the explosion, the Chuangxin kindergarten still hadn't been let out of class, and none of the children or teachers from the kindergarten was a casualty," Mr Zhou said, according to the website of Legal Daily, an official Chinese newspaper.
Images circulating on social media showed the kindergarten's heavy metal security fence bent by the blast.
Chinese netizens said they were praying for the survivors.
Many images were too graphic to be shown on television, where even business news bulletins broke from their scheduled programming to report the explosion.
A mobile phone camera video posted on the website of the official People's Daily newspaper showed more than a dozen people lying motionless in front of the kindergarten's steel sliding gate, with clothing, shoes and other items strewn on the ground.
Last month a driver set fire to a school bus carrying children to a kindergarten in the eastern Shandong province, killing 11 pupils and a teacher.
with agencies