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Two arrested for market explosive scares in Hubei

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-08-06 20:34

YICHANG - Two suspects were arrested for allegedly claiming they put explosives in two shopping malls in a central China city, local police said on Wednesday.

Police in Hubei Province arrested two suspects surnamed Wang and Liu at 6 pm on Tuesday in the Dongshan development zone in Yichang City, the Yichang City Public Security Bureau said.

At 11:10 am that day, staff of a SPAR outlet in downtown Yichang received a mobile phone text message with the sender claiming they put explosives in the store. About 30 minutes later, staff at the city's Huijin shopping center received the same message. The two stores immediately alerted police.

More than 170 police rushed to the two stores. After a careful search, they found no explosives as claimed.

The suspects, both 21-year-old locals of Dangyang City, Hubei, told police they had planned to blackmail the supermarkets by creating the false alarms.