At least 33 people are dead and 130 injured after a group of knife-wielding men hacked their way through innocent people at one of China’s busiest railway stations.
Distressing photos circulating online showed bodies, pools of blood and abandoned luggage scattered across the terminal floor at Kunming Railway Station in Yunnan province.
Authorities described the incident at about 9.20pm local time (1.20pm GMT) as an ‘organised, premeditated, violent terrorist attack’ in which at least 10 people stabbed commuters outside the station terminal before moving inside.
The death toll stands at 29 bystanders and four attackers who were shot dead by police.
Nothing is yet known of the motivation behind the attack, but the Chinese government has blamed militants from the remote far western region of Xinjiang, which is home to tensions between the government and Muslim separatists.
The state news agency Xinhua, quoting local government sources, said: ‘Evidence at the crime scene showed that the Kunming Railway Station terrorist attack was carried out by Xinjiang separatist forces.’
The Xinjiang region borders Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan and the Chinese government has blamed several attacks on militants there.
The region is home to a large Muslim Uighur minority who are angry at the treatment of their beliefs by the authorities.
Most attacks blamed on Uighur separatists have taken place in Xinjiang itself, but the train station was more than 620 miles away.
This is the first time Uighurs have been blamed for an attack so large and far from their home. A suicide attack in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in October was also blamed on the group by authorities.
China denies suggestions by exiles and human rights groups that the unrest is driven more by unhappiness at government policies than by any serious threat from extremist groups, who want to establish an independent state called East Turkestan.
Police shot dead four of the unidentified attackers and were searching for around five others, according to state media.
Several suspects were contained by police and the station and surrounding roads were cordoned off.
Medics were still treating people and taking them to hospital hours after the attack, according to the state-run Xinhua News Agency, which provided the number of people killed and injured.
An earlier estimate of 162 injuries which was reported by state media was reduced.
The death toll makes the attack one of the deadliest in recent Chinese history.
DAILYMAIL.CO.UK
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