Police authorities in southwest China's Yunnan Province have arrested a father and his son in connection with an explosion that killed two villagers and injured another 17 earlier this week.

 

Tao Xiaowu and his son, from Huangmaoling village in Yuanyang County, are suspected of throwing four homemade bombs into a crowd on Wednesday evening, three of which went off, said a press release provided by the Public Security Bureau in Hani and Yi Autonomous Prefecture of Honghe on Saturday.

 

Tao's other son, who fled after the bombing, is the subject of a police hunt.

 

"A preliminary investigation by the public security authorities shows that Tao's wife had had a feud with a peasant woman in the neighborhood, and the woman was in the crowd when the blast went off," it said without giving any further details or saying whether or not the peasant woman was among the dead.

 

Phone calls to the prefecture's public security bureau went unanswered.

 

(Xinhua News Agency October 22, 2006)