At least 33 dead and 130 injured after gang of knife-wielding men attack a train station in China
- WARNING GRAPHIC CONTENT: Distressing photos show bodies and blood
- Police 'shot dead four attackers and were searching for around five others'
- Attack took place at busy Kunming Railway Station in Yunnan province
- Authorities say it was an 'organised, premeditated, violent terrorist attack'
- Online descriptions of the violence were deleted by government censors
- Chinese government has blamed militants from western region of Xinjiang
By DAN BLOOM
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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.
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Probe: Police have cordoned off Kunming Railway Station in Yunnan province, one of the busiest in China in a city of six million people, after a gang of knife-wielding 'terror' attackers stabbed dozens of people
Horror: Photos shared on the Chinese micro-blogging site Weibo showed bodies strewn across the floor
Distressing: Photos circulated widely on the internet showed a line-up of bodies on the station floor surrounded by medical equipment. The majority of the photos are too graphic to publish
Emergency: Medics were still treating people in the station hours after the attack, said a Chinese news agency
Abandoned: Travel bags surrounded by blood lie strewn across then floor of the terminal, protected by police
Carnage: The attack was described as a 'violent terror attack' by state television
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.
Devastation: A victim of the attack at the First People's Hosptial of Kunming (left) and strewn baggage (right)
Torn apart: A boy with a victim of the attack in hospital. More than 100 people were injured and 28 killed
Xinhua said a group of men was involved but did not provide more details and the attackers were not identified. Kunming city police did not have immediate information to release.
Resident Yang Haifei told Xinhua he was buying a ticket in the station when he saw a group of people rush into the station, many of them dressed in black, and start attacking people.
'I saw a person come straight at me with a long knife and I ran away with everyone,' he told the news agency, adding some people 'just fell on the ground'.
Another crying victim outside the station told the news agency: 'I can't find my husband, and his phone went unanswered.'
Local TV station K6 said several of the attackers were shot by police and that victims were being transported to local hospitals.
The men were wearing uniforms when they stormed the railway station and gunshots were heard after police responded, another state news organisation said.
Domestic security chief Meng Jianzhu, one of China's top politicians, was reportedly travelling tonight to the scene in downtown Kunming, the capital of the Yunnan province which has more than six million citizens.
Major city: The attack was at the main railway station for Kunming in south west China, the capital of Yunnan province which has more than six million inhabitants. It handles up to 75,000 passengers a day
Horror: A woman talks tearfully on the phone outside the station. The city is said to be in a state of shock
Reaction: Officers cordoned off the area around the station and reportedly shot four attackers dead
Devastation: Police, firefighters, paramedics and shocked citizens gathered near the station
Cordon: Initial figures suggested 162 people were injured, though this was later revised downwards
Panic: A witness said people ran in all directions and the slower ones were caught and hacked to death
The station is one of the largest in south west China and opened in 1958, with up to 75,000 passengers a day passing through it.
Many posts describing the attack on the Chinese Twitter-like micro-blogging site Weibo, where photos of the carnage were first posted, were reportedly deleted by government censors.
Reuters reported the quickest posts to be scrubbed were those that described the attackers, two of whom were identified by some as women.
Others condemned the attack.
One user wrote: 'No matter who, for whatever reason, or of what race, chose somewhere so crowded as a train station, and made innocent people their target - they are evil and they should go to hell.'
A woman staying at a hotel near the station told the South China Morning Post she was terrified to leave.
'Our guests who walked passed the train station told us not to leave the hotel because the situation is dangerous,' she said.
'We dare not leave the hotel right now. There are many police outside. We just fear that not all the attackers have been caught.'
Armed: Security is already heightened in China ahead of an annual meeting of Parliament on Wednesday
Hundreds of police officers and medics descended on the busy station after the attack at about 9pm local time
However, China has seen a number of mass stabbings and other attacks carried out by people bearing grudges against society.
SERIES OF KNIFE ATTACKS IN CHINA
The attack is the latest and one of the most deadly in a series of mass stabbings in the last few years.
A catalogue of random attacks, many of them on schools, began in 2010 and culminated in the massacre of 22 children and an elderly woman outside a primary school in Henan province in December 2012.
The attack was followed by one last June by gangs armed with knifes who set upon a police station and local government building in western China.
While some of the stabbings are by murderers acting alone, others are said to be lashing out against the Chinese state.
In June last year at least 27 people were killed after gangs armed with knives attacked a police station and a local government building in a remote region of western China.
Mobs in the Xinjiang region, home to a large Muslim Uighur minority, were said to have set upon buildings in the township of Lukqun at around 6am, stabbing people and setting fire to police cars.
The attack comes at a particularly sensitive time as China gears up for the annual meeting of parliament, which opens in Beijing on Wednesday and is normally accompanied by a tightening of security across the country.
China has blamed similar incidents on Islamist extremists operating in the restive far western region of Xinjiang, though such attacks have generally been limited to Xinjiang itself.
There is unrest among many Uighurs at restrictions laid down by the Chinese authorities on their culture and religion.
Standing guard: Police have been trying to establish why the gang of men burst into the station
Pistol: Four knifemen - including the one in the background - were shot dead by police and more were held
Hu Xijin, the editor of the influential Global Times newspaper, said it was important not to allow a 'vacuum' in which groups could be unfairly blamed for the train station attack.
'If it was Xinjiang seperatists, it needs to be announced promptly, as hearsay should not be allowed to fill the vacuum,' he wrote.
The Global Times is published by the ruling Communist Party's official People's Daily.
The Security Management Bureau under the Ministry of Public Security called the incident a 'severe violent crime'.
'No matter what motives the murderers hold, the killing of innocent people is against kindness and justice,' it said.
'The police will crack down the crimes in accordance with the law without any tolerance. May the dead rest in peace.'
Did you witness the attack in Kunming? If you can help please e-mail dan.bloom@mailonline.co.uk, including a contact phone number.
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