Beijing SUV Crash at Tiananmen Square Kills Five, Injures 38, Amid Speculations of Deliberate Attack

A Jeep smashed through dozens of pedestrians and policemen at Tiananmen Square in Beijing on Monday, leaving five people dead and 38 injured.

After plowing through the crowd, the SUV hit the front gate at Tiananmen, not far from where a picture of Mao Zedong hung.

Three people in the car were killed, in addition to some tourists from the Philippines and Guangdong province, according to Xinhua News Agency. The injured were rushed to nearby hospitals, and police told Xinhua that an extensive investigation was under way. Photos from the event posted on China's Weibo microblogging site bore images of a car that had burst into flames, casting ominous clouds of black smoke into the sky.

By 2:30 p.m. local time, law enforcement officials had sealed off the area near Mao's portrait by putting up blue and green canvas, according to Bloomberg. Cars were momentarily stopped on Chang'an Avenue - a span between the gate and Tiananmen Square. But authorities from the Beijing Transportation Department reported that traffic resumed normally shortly after. Tiananmen Square was cleared, following the incident.

USA Today reported that the attack was a curious one - the vehicle drove a fair amount of distance on the sidewalk, barreling through crowds of pedestrians. Some Weibo users wagered that the Jeep was used for a larger, deliberate attack.

Tiananmen Square is one of the biggest tourist attractions in China, and is also a core venue for Chinese politics. Many Communist governmental leaders live and work in the vicinity, while most party events happen in the Great Hall of the People, where the nations' Women's Congress met on Monday. Tiananmen is also famous for its 1989 protests that were suppressed by force, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of citizens. The massacre at Tiananmen Square is still hotly debated, and some government officials still deny its occurrence altogether.

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