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An explosion hit an area outside the US Embassy in Beijing when a man set off a device near a gate, causing panic and confusion.

The man tried to hurl a homemade bomb into the compound, but the device exploded in the street before he could throw it, reports claimed.

An embassy spokesperson confirmed that a man had detonated an explosive device and he was the only person injured.

Police claim the suspect was a 26-year-old man from China's Inner Mongolia region who had a "firecracker-like" device and wasn't seriously hurt.

He was reportedly bringing attention to a human rights issue, but police did not reveal a motive.

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(Image: jimmyzhong_iost/Twitter)

A visa agent told New York Times reporter Austin Ramzy that the man who detonated the device was trying to call attention to a human rights issue.

Gautam Bambawale, India's ambassador to China, told Republic TV journalist Aditya Raj Kaul that he heard a "low-intensity blast" outside the American Embassy, which is next to India's diplomatic mission in the Chinese capital.

There was no damage to US Embassy property.

(Image: jimmyzhong_iost/Twitter)

(Image: REUTERS)

One video taken in the aftermath shows security personnel, including military and police, working around something under a blue tarpaulin within a cordon on a blood-spattered pavement.

One person in plain clothes is seen kneeling next to the tarpaulin as armed soldiers stand guard near the south-east corner of the compound.

A police car next to the group had at least one of its windows blown out.

(Image: REUTERS) (Image: AFP)

Smoke filled the street - which is usually busy with people queueing for visas or other appointments at the embassy - as eyewitnesses gathered around 1pm local time on Thursday.

Footage shows confusion and panic, as eyewitnesses keep their distance and security personnel work within the cordon.

Eyewitnesses told Radio Free Asia a man was carrying a homemade explosive device and intended to throw the bomb over the embassy's fence.

(Image: REUTERS)

However, the device exploded before he could throw it, the report added.

A 19-year-old high school student who gave his name as Li told Reuters: "I'd just arrived and started to queue and then heard a loud explosion about 100 metres away."

Li was queuing to apply for a US visa to take an exam in Los Angeles.

Li Shaohui, a 58-year-old sanitation worker, said he felt the ground shake and that some people screamed.

(Image: AFP)

He added: "I thought first there was big a car crash."

The embassy said it returned to normal operations at about 1.45pm.

Chinese authorities censored content on social media and downplayed the incident in a number of statements.

Beijing police said a man had set off a "firecracker-like device" and was taken to hospital with a hand injury.

(Image: REUTERS) (Image: REUTERS)

The statement was posted on the Chinese social media network Weibo, but police chose not to mention that the blast happened outside America's embassy.

China's Foreign Ministry described it as an “isolated security incident".

Eyewitness' video clips of the scene were deleted from social media by censors, and public Weibo posts about the explosion - including the keyword "US Embassy in Beijing explosion" - were banned.

Journalist Stephen McDonnell, the BBC's China correspondent, wrote on Twitter that police told his crew not to record video of the scene.

An Inkstone News journalist at the scene tweeted photos, and wrote that a police officer blocking the road warned: "Don't take photos, otherwise you'll be detained."

Journalists continued to take photos and record video of the aftermath, including blood on the pavement where the explosion happened.

Within an hour of the incident, people were queueing again for visas and other appointments, and traffic was flowing again outside the embassy in northeastern Beijing.

Journalists said police worked quickly to clean and clear the scene, at one point scrubbing the pavement.

About two hours before the explosion, police had stopped a woman dousing herself in petrol in a suspected self-immolation attempt outside the embassy, Chinese state media reported.

Thursday's blast happened in the Chinese capital's Chaoyang district where there are a number of foreign embassies, including those of the US, India, Israel and South Korea.

The US Embassy has heavy security measures, including a bulletproof glass wall, and is America's third-largest diplomatic mission in the world, behind its embassies in Baghdad, Iraq and Yerevan, Armenia.

Measuring 500,000 square feet on 10 acres of land, the Beijing embassy was officially opened by then-President George W Bush in August 2008.