Chinese police have confirmed that house demolition has nothing to do with a bomber's motivation for a blast in a government office in southwestern Yunnan Province that killed four people and injured 16 others.

Zhao Dengyong, male, 26, of Baogunao township of Qiaojia county, detonated explosives at around 9 a.m. Thursday at a housing demolition office in Baihetan township of Qiaojia county in Zhaotong city, a county police spokesman said Friday night.

Officials at the site were signing compensation agreements with local villagers over the demolition of their homes when the incident happened.

But Zhao's motivation was not connected with house demolition, and he was believed to take revenge on the society, the police spokesman said, citing crime scene investigation results, inquiries among local residents and surveillance video footage of the bombing site.

No one at the housing demolition office knew Zhao, which excluded house demolition as Zhao's motivation for the blast, the spokesman said.

Li Defang, a woman from the village of Yibo who was injured in the blast, said she was consulting local officials about compensation policies over house demolition at the office with fellow villagers when the blast happened.

"I saw a man (Zhao) with a black backpack coming into the office at the time. I was wondering then why he came here because he is not a villager of our Yibo village," she said.

"After a few minutes, I heard a big 'bang.' My ears were almost deafened and my feet were injured," she said.

The police spokesman said Zhao had been living on carrying passengers with a motorcycle in the county seat and he had rented a house whose owner was from Yibo Village.

"Zhao had no kindred relationship or other economic ties with nearby villagers who had their houses demolished. We suspect for now that his motivation for producing the blast was to take revenge on the society," the spokesman said.

Zhao's hometown is some 100 km away from Baihetan, police said earlier.

The explosion killed Zhao, two other villagers and one official at the scene. Four badly injured people were rushed to hospital in the provincial capital of Kunming, while 12 less severely injured victims are being treated at a local hospital.

Police continue to investigate the case.

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