A man in a wheelchair ignited a home-made explosive device at Beijing’s international airport Saturday, state media reported, injuring himself but no others.

A man in a wheelchair ignited a home-made explosive device at Beijing's international airport Saturday, state media reported, injuring himself but no others.

The man, identified as Ji Zhongxing from Shandong province and born in 1979, was being treated for injuries, the state-run Xinhua news agency said, citing police.

The explosion, which occurred in the airport's Terminal 3 just outside the arrivals exit, caused no other injuries, the report said.

But the blast nonetheless created momentary panic and confusion at one of the world's busiest airports.

On social media and Chinese websites a photo -- purportedly taken just before the explosion occurred -- showed a man in a peach colored shirt sitting in a wheelchair with his hands in the air holding a white package.

According to the preliminary investigation, police said that the Ji set off the device immediately after being obstructed from releasing leaflets, Xinhua said.

There were no immediate details on the content of the leaflets or what, if any, complaints the man may have.

Police and the airport's information office could not immediately be reached for comment while Xinhua reported that Ji's injuries were not thought to be life-threatening.

China Central Television's Twitter-like microblog said no flights were affected by the incident and that the situation had returned to normal.

Media reports mentioned there was no sign of increased police presence and travellers were arriving normally.

Photos carried on Xinhua's website showed what appeared to be medical and other workers attending to someone on the floor and people running through the terminal amid white-colored smoke.

Security at Beijing's airport, the sixth busiest in the world with 557,000 take-offs and landings each year, is tight as are many public locations and transport hubs in the country.

The airport, with three terminals, underwent a massive expansion ahead of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Violent crime is rare in China which had a murder rate of 1.0 per 100,000 people in 2010, according to the United Nations, among the lowest in the world.