Mass stabbing at China rail station leaves 28 dead in 'terrorist attack'

WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGES BELOW

China blamed militants from the restive far western region of Xinjiang on Sunday for an attack at a train station on the other side of the country by knife-wielding "terrorists" in which at least 33 died, including four of the assailants, who were shot dead.

The attack, in the balmy southwestern city of Kunming late on Saturday evening, marks a major escalation in the simmering unrest which had centered on Xinjiang, a heavily Muslim region strategically located on the borders of Central Asia.

It is the first time people from Xinjiang have been blamed for carrying out such a large-scale attack so far from their homeland, and follows an incident in Beijing's Tiananmen Square in October which shook the country's Communist leadership.

China has stepped up security in Xinjiang after a vehicle ploughed into tourists on the edge of Tiananmen Square, killing the three people in the car and two bystanders. China labeled it a suicide attack by militants from Xinjiang.

Xinjiang is home to the Muslim Uighur people, many of whom chafe at Chinese restrictions on their culture and religion.

China bristles at suggestions from exiles and 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.

State news agency Xinhua said the train station attack, in which more than 130 were also injured, was "an organized, premeditated violent terrorist attack".

"Evidence at the crime scene showed that the Kunming Railway Station terrorist attack was carried out by Xinjiang separatist forces," it added, citing the Kunming government.

Police shot dead four of the attackers and detained one, Xinhua said, while approximate five others are on the run. It initially said five of the attackers had been shot dead.

Victims described knife-wielding attackers dressed in black bursting into Kunming railway station in the southwestern province of Yunnan province and slashing indiscriminately.

A knife victim named Yang Haifei, who was wounded in the chest and back, told Xinhua that he had been buying a train ticket when the attackers approached and had tried to escape with the crowd.

"I saw a person come straight at me with a long knife and I ran away with everyone," he said, while others "simply fell on the ground".

Police officers investigate the crime scene outside a railway station after an attack by knife wielding men leaving some 27 people dead in Kunming, in southwestern China's Yunnan province. Photo: AP

Some who had escaped were desperately looking for missing loved ones.

"I can't find my husband, and his phone went unanswered," Yang Ziqing was quoted as saying.

She said she had been waiting for her train to Shanghai "when a knife-wielding man suddenly came at them".

Officers sealed off a wide area around the station, it added, while Xinhua said police were questioning people at the site.

Police examine crime scene evidence. Photo: Reuters/CCTV

The attackers were dressed in similar black clothing, the official China News Service said, citing eyewitnesses.

"A group of men carrying weapons burst into the train station plaza and the ticket hall, stabbing whoever they saw," it said.

State broadcaster CCTV called the incident a "terrorist attack" on its Weibo account.

China's top security official Meng Jianzhu would travel to Kunming to oversee its handling, CCTV said, while President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang sent condolences to the victims and their families.

Photos posted on Sina Weibo showed blood spattered across the station floor and medical staff crouching over bodies lying on the ground, although the authenticity of the images could not be verified.

The photos showed crowds gathered outside among police officers and ambulances. The injured had been delivered to hospitals around the city, local television station K6 said.

A Weibo user going by the name HuangY3xin-Dione who was at a restaurant near the scene told how she saw a group of men in black with two long knives chasing people, Xinhua reported.

Another eyewitness told the Beijing News that she had seen two women in black walking towards the station and that some of the attackers had their faces covered.

Such incidents are rare in China, although knife and bomb attacks against local officials occur sporadically in the far-western region of Xinjiang, home to the mainly Muslim Uighur ethnic minority.

The Uighurs complain of cultural repression and tight security, while Beijing says it is facing a violent separatist movement.

Incidents involving Uighurs are often labelled "terrorist attacks" while others carried out by Chinese seen as having grievances against society or the authorities are not.

In a high-profile incident in Beijing last October, three Uighur family members set their car on fire at Tiananmen Square, the symbolic heart of the Chinese state, killing themselves and two bystanders.

The body of a victim is inspected by police officers outside a railway station, after an attack in Kunming, in southwestern China's Yunnan province. Photo: AP

The following month 41-year-old Feng Zhijun set off explosions outside a Communist Party office in the northern city of Taiyuan, killing one person and wounded eight.

Feng had previously served nine years in jail for theft and sought to "take revenge on society", Xinhua said.

In another prominent case last July, a wheelchair-bound man Ji Zhongxing set off a homemade bomb at Beijing's international airport in protest against alleged police brutality, but did not cause casualties.

Ji elicited widespread public sympathy and was sentenced to six months' jail.