Update | Eight suspects, mostly Uygurs, sought in deadly Tiananmen crash

Police in Beijing are seeking information on at least eight suspects and five licence plates, the South China Morning Post has learnt on Tuesday. While most of the suspects appear to be Uygurs, one man bears an ethnic Han name.

The request for information circulated among Beijing hotels by police on Tuesday is believed to be linked to the fatal car crash in Tiananmen Square on Monday that killed five, including the three people in the vehicle.

There has been no official word on whether the incident was an accident or an attack. A source who has ties to the leadership, speaking on condition of anonymity, said it was the latter. "The jeep knocked down barricades and rammed into pedestrians. The three men had no plans to flee from the scene," the source said.

Police are still investigating and have yet to determine the identities of the three people in the vehicle, according to sources. Beijing police late on Monday asked hotels for information on two suspects from the restive far western region of Xinjiang in connection with a “major incident”.

Five people died and 38 were injured in the car crash when a light-coloured SUV rammed through barricades in front of Tiananmen Square’s gate tower and burst into flames on Monday. The area below late Chairman Mao Zedong’s portrait was quickly closed off and smoke could be seen rising behind an improvised barricade.