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Global

Blast hits China tax office in apparent attack


    SHANGHAI (Reuters) - A blast rocked a local tax office in central China, killing at least four people and injuring 19, in what police say appeared to be a deliberate attack, the official Xinhua news agency said Saturday.

    Friday afternoon's explosion occurred at a district tax office in Changsha, capital of Hunan province, Xinhua said.

    Initial investigations showed the explosion was a planned attack, Xinhua cited the city's police department as saying in a statement.

    China is struggling to contain social tensions, and anger over issues ranging from the cost of health care to a rapidly widening rich-poor gap in the past has exploded into violence.

    (Reporting by Jason Subler, editing by Jonathan Thatcher)