Two hospitalized after car fire in downtown Beijing

Source: China Daily

BEIJING -- The Beijing government information office has provided Xinhua with a statement on the car fire which occurred downtown Wednesday afternoon.

It said two of the three people, who were inside the car, were hospitalized for non-life threatening injuries.

Xinhua has confirmed with two separate sources that there were two men and one woman in the vehicle at the time of the incident. One woman and one man were taken to the hospital.

The information office statement mentioned nothing about the third person.

The statement said the "fire started suddenly" when police stopped the car and came forward to question the passengers inside at around 2:50 p.m.. Police then extinguished the fire.

The office said earlier that three people "set fire to themselves" while inside the car.

The statement went on to say, "police found something abnormal about the car" before they stopped it at the southern end of Wangfujing avenue.

"The three people came to Beijing for personal petitions," the Beijing government information office said.

The car had a non-Beijing license plate. But the people's identities have not been released.

This is just sad. Not the 3 people injured part. The Government part.

A) The Beijing government information office

It's a car accident. If a car accident happens in your town, does the Whitehouse or State Legislature issue a statement and a car blew up?

B) Three people set themselves in fire.

Oh nooooo, there's nothing wrong with good Chinese cars.. one could never get into an accident or blow up. These people must have SET THEMSELVES ON FIRE

C) The fire started suddenly

Ah since setting themselves on fire was no believable lets just cover this up and say the fire started suddenly.

The steps the Chinese government makes to cover up even the tiniest of issues is embarrassing. Just report the facts. You're not a perfect society, shit will happen. Cars will blow up, water will go bad, people will jump off buildings, mines will collapse and birds will get the flu. How about trying to solve the problem instead of hiding it?