An explosion killed 12 people and injured 24 at a teahouse in the southwestern Chinese municipality of Chongqing, state media said on Friday. The explosion ripped through the teahouse in Chongqing's Tongliang county on Thursday afternoon, killing nine people instantly, the official Xinhua news agency said. Three more people died on the way to hospital and 24 were injured, the agency said. The news agency's website showed pictures of the apparently burnt-out concrete shop unit where the teahouse had operated. Several charred motorcycles and bicycles lay in front of the building. Officials in Tongliang said they had no information about the cause of the explosion, but said a statement would be released later on Friday. State media reports gave no indication of whether the blast may have been deliberate.
