Terror as 29 killed in knife frenzy

03 March 2014 - 02:00 By Reuters
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Image: Gallo Images/Thinkstock

Witnesses to chilling violence at a Chinese railway station now under heavy security recalled the fear and chaos yesterday when at least 29 people were killed in what authorities called a terrorist attack by Xinjiang militants.

Officials said a group of knife-wielding terrorists from the restive Xinjiang region attacked people at the Kunming railway station in China's southwest on Saturday night. More than 130 people were wounded.

Armed riot police stood guard as people streamed into the station yesterday only hours after the attack, one of the worst of its kind in China in recent memory.

A parking attendant surnamed Chen said he "saw a person with a knife this big", extending his arms wide.

"Then I saw five or six of them. They all had knives and they were stabbing people madly over near the ticket offices."

Police shot four of the attackers dead and captured one, state news agency Xinhua reported. About five others were said to be on the run.

Xinhua quoted the Kunming city government as saying evidence at the crime scene showed that the attack was carried out by Xinjiang separatists.

The attack was made at a sensitive time. The annual meeting of China's rubber-stamp parliament opens in Beijing on Wednesday.

Word of the violence spread quickly Pictures of bodies covered in blood were posted on the Twitter-like microblogging service Sina Weibo.

Such posts were deleted by government censors but state television showed police wrapping a sword-like weapon in an evidence bag.

Shop and restaurant workers said hundreds had fled into their premises.

"Last night everyone ran over into my supermarket. The supermarket was full of people, including two passengers who had been stabbed," Ren Guangqin said.

"I was terrified. How could I not be scared?" said 28-year-old Ren.

Scores of patients from the attack spilled into corridors from overflowing wards at Kunming's No1 People's Hospital . Several patients had head injuries.

"They attacked us like crazy swordsmen, and went for the head and shoulders," 20-year-old student Wu Yuheng said, lying on a hospital bed. One attacker had nicked him on the scalp

China's domestic security chief, Meng Jianzhu, vowed those responsible would be brought to justice.

The attack marked a major intensification if the simmering unrest that has centred on Xinjiang, a heavily Muslim region in China's far west strategically located on the borders of central Asia.

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