After a Jeep crashed into a crowd at Beijing's Tiananmen Square, killing five and injuring at least 38, Chinese government censors were pulling overtime duty to erase the incident from social media, according to news reports.
The Washington Post reports that the Jeep crashed into the square today and burst into flames, killing three occupants and two pedestrians as well as injuring nearly 40 other people. Among those hurt or killed were tourists from the Philippines and Japan.
The reasons for the crash are unknown, but some on Chinese social media suggested it may have been an act of self-immolation, a form of protest in China.
This caused Chinese to work to scrub the incident from social sites like Weibo and to block terms like "Tiananmen car accident" from search engines, the Post reports.
The crash and explosion occurred not far from the famed portrait of Chairman Mao which hangs in the square. The square is China's most politically sensitive landmark, as it was the site where government forces fired on pro-democracy demonstrators in 1989.
Photo credit AP
Jeep Crash In Tiananmen Square Forces Chinese Censors To Work Overtime