Ji Zhongxin, a 34-year-old petitioner born in Heze, Shandong province, blew himself up on Saturday in Terminal 3 of Beijing Capital International Airport. Watch how he did it, above, in a video that’s been viewed 2.6 million times on Tencent.

Ji was reportedly in Beijing to petition decade-long grievances from his time working in Guangdong province, suffering the abuse of authorities and chengguan. Shanghaiist managed to grab Ji’s Sina blog before it was deleted on Sunday (preserved on James Griffiths’s Pastebin), in which Ji wrote:

Because we are farmers, and are poor, no matter who we turn to, nobody wants to help us. And what’s more, when the chengguan found us, they turned around and called us tramps and beat us. If it weren’t for them taking us to hospital on time, I wouldn’t have survived…

We looked to the sky, and the sky looked away; we called to the earth, and the earth did not respond. We have been forsaken but have nobody to turn to, so all I could do was to hold back tears and go back to Shandong. And now I am festering away, paralysed and over 100,000 yuan in debt. Our family have suffered an unimaginable fate. My uncle died when he was young, and soon after so did my mother and grandmother. The only thing that’s keeping me going is the thought of seeking justice.

Justice in the form of a homemade bomb, apparently, detonated in the international arrivals hall of a major airport.

Ji, who is recovering in a hospital as we speak, may find solace in at least this bit of news: officials have reopened Ji’s case in Dongguan, Guangdong province, reports SCMP:

The Public Security Bureau in Guangdong asked the Dongguan branch to carry out a thorough investigation into mistreatment claimed by Ji Zhongxing, the bomber, and his ensuing petitions, the national broadcaster CCTV reported yesterday, adding that the probe was already under way.

(H/T Derrick Sobodash)

A man in a wheelchair detonated a homemade explosion this evening at Beijing Capital International Airport’s Terminal 3. It happened in the international arrivals hall at 6:24 pm, according to Xinhua, with no one else getting injured.

CCTV identified the man as Ji Zhongxing from Shandong province. The explosive was reportedly made using gunpowder from fireworks, and probably should be hashtagged “fail.”

Reuters reports that the area was cleaned up fairly quickly, with authorities basically shrugging: “A Reuters witness said things had returned to normal about 90 minutes after the explosion and there were no signs of extra security.”

Updates as they become available.

UPDATE, 7/22, 4:20 pm: Check out video of the explosion:

UPDATE, 7/21, 2:36 am: The man may have been a petitioner whose appeals fell on deaf ears. The Telegraph reports:

According to his older brother, Ji Zhongji, Mr Ji had been working as a rickshaw driver in the southern Chinese city of Xintang when he was beaten by local police with a steel tube, leaving him disabled.

“We filed two legal cases against the police in Xintang but we never received any official compensation,” he said.

In 2008, Mr Ji went to Beijing to put his case before the central government, his brother said, but had been asked to return home and had not ventured to the capital since.

Two days ago, however, their father, who lived with Mr Ji and cared for him, reported that he had gone missing.

(H/T Valentina Luo)

UPDATE, 7/30, 2:47 pm: He has been arrested.

Ji Zhongxing, who was suspected of setting off a home-made explosive at the Beijing Capital International Airport, has been arrested, police said Tuesday.

UPDATE, 9/18, 1:51 am: He asked for forgiveness in court.