China Knife Attack : 29 killed by knife-wielding ‘terrorists’

An attack by a group of knife-wielding men at a train station in southwestern China on Saturday left at least 33 dead and 143 injured.

Of the 33 who died, four were masked assailants killed by the police, according to reports of the Xinhua news agency.

Xinhua said the attack was carried out by separatists from China’s far Western region of Xinjiang.

“Evidence at the crime scene showed that the Kunming railway station terrorist attack was carried out by Xinjiang separatist forces,” Xinhua said, citing the government of Kunming city where the attack happened.

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

Xinhua also reported that five of the attackers were shot by police at the train station and are “chasing the rest”. Officers sealed off a wide area around the station while police were questioning people at the site.

Victims were being transported to local hospitals around the city, according to an AFP news agency report.

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”.

Photos circulating online showed scattered luggage and bodies lying on the floor in blood, although the authenticity of the images could not be verified.

Agencies/Canadajournal