wo explosions timed only 90 minutes apart rocked the dining halls of two of Beijing's top universities yesterday, injuring nine people, said Liu Wei, spokesman from the Beijing Public Security Bureau.

None of the injured are critical, he said yesterday.

According to a preliminary police investigation, home-made gunpowder bombs were responsible for the explosions at Tsinghua University and Peking University in Beijing, said the spokesman.

An intense police investigation is under way, the spokesman noted, and police have been instructed to spare no effort in investigating the two assaults.

The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council have also demanded maximum efforts in the treatment of the injured and an exhaustive probe into the two explosions.

The first explosion took place on the first floor of Heyuan, a teachers' dining hall in Tsinghua University, at 11:50 am, while more than 30 people were eating lunch.

Six people were injured, including a post-doctorate student, a student from Beijing Broadcasting Institute and four teachers from Tsinghua.

The second explosion occurred in the Nongyuan dining hall in Peking University at about 1:20 pm. Three people were injured but none critically.

The three injured were not regular students or teachers, but workers from the dining hall - a canteen manager, a sanitary worker and a non-resident student from a nearby private college also working there.

The power of the blast shattered the windows of the north gate of the Nongyuan dining hall at Peking University.

"I heard the sound of the blast first and then saw dozens of people rushing out of the canteen," said a witness, identified as Xie, who was on his way to classes at the time.

Nongyuan, with a floor space of 4,000 square metres, is said to be the largest student dining hall of Beijing's universities.

Public order at both campuses of the nationally renowned universities has remained normal and both teachers and students are in good spirits, with no further incidents reported, said the spokesman.

(Xinhua QIN JIZE 26-02-2003)