"Other than the bomber, no other people were injured and there was no damage to embassy property"

An explosive device was detonated at the US Embassy in Beijing earlier today, injuring only the bomber.

As reported by CBS, an explosion occurred outside the US Embassy in Beijing on Thursday.

Chinese police said the small homemade device was detonated at 1pm outside the American Embassy in Beijing. A 26-year-old man, known only as Jiang, who made the device was the only person to have been injured.

Jiang is believe to have come from Tongliao, Inner Mongolia.

“There was an explosion at approximately 1pm today on the street outside the South East corner of the Embassy compound,” the U.S. Embassy confirmed in a statement. “According to the Embassy’s Regional Security Officer, there was one individual who detonated a bomb. Other than the bomber, no other people were injured and there was no damage to embassy property. The local police responded.”

Discussing the bomber, the statement added, “he is hospitalized and no one else was injured. His surname is Jiang, 26, from Inner Mongolia. Case is under further investigation.”

Images on social media showed a large amount of smoke and police surrounding the building. Witnesses saod they heard the explosion and felt tremors.

One IT worker who was less than 40 meters from the scene told CNN, “there was a lot of smoke and it smelled a lot like fireworks and matches.”