Five detained over Tiananmen terrorist attack

Chinese police have identified Monday's deadly car crash at Beijing's Tiananmen Square as a terrorist attack and five suspects have been detained, police said Wednesday.

The attack was "carefully planned, organised and premeditated", Xinhua quoted police as saying.

With the cooperation of police authorities, including those in China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, Beijing police have apprehended five suspects, a spokesman with the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau said.

Usmen Hasan, his mother and wife drove a jeep with a Xinjiang plate to crash into a crowd Monday, killing two people and injuring 40, the spokesman said.

The jeep crashed into a guardrail of Jinshui bridge across the moat of the Forbidden City. The three people who were in the jeep died after they ignited gasoline, according to the spokesman.

Police found more gasoline, two knives and steel sticks as well as a flag with extremist religious content in the jeep.

Police have also found knives and at least one "jihad" flag in the temporary residence of the five detained suspects.