China – More than 10 knife-wielding attackers slashed people at a train station in southwestern China late Saturday in what authorities called a terrorist attack by Uighur separatists, and police fatally shot four of the assailants, leaving 33 people dead and 130 others wounded, state media said.
The attackers, most of them dressed in black, stormed the Kunming train station in Yunnan province and started attacking people in the late evening, witness Yang Haifei told the official Xinhua News Agency from a hospital where he was being treated for chest and back wounds.
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“I saw a person come straight at me with a long knife and I ran away with everyone,” he told Xinhua, adding that people who were slower ended up severely injured. “They just fell on the ground,” Yang said.
One suspect was arrested, Xinhua said. Evidence found at the scene of the attack showed that it was “a terrorist attack carried out by Xinjiang separatist forces,” the agency quoted the municipal government as saying. Authorities considered it to be “an organized, premeditated violent terrorist attack.”
The far western region of Xinjiang is home to a simmering rebellion against Chinese rule by separatists among parts of the Muslim Uighur (pronounced WEE’-gur) population.
Most attacks blamed on Uighur separatists take place in Xinjiang, but Saturday’s assault took place more than 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) to the southeast in Yunnan, which has not had a history of such unrest. However, a suicide car attack blamed on Uighur separatists that killed five people at Beijing’s Tiananmen Gate last November raised alarms that militants may be aiming to strike at targets throughout the country.
In an indication of how seriously authorities viewed the attack — one of China’s deadliest in recent years — the country’s top police official, Politburo member Meng Jianzhu, was on route to Kunming, the Communist Party-run People’s Daily reported.
The violence in Kunming came at a sensitive time as political leaders in Beijing prepared for Wednesday’s opening of the annual meeting of the nominal legislature where the government of President Xi Jinping will deliver its first one-year work report.
Xi called for “all-out efforts” to bring the culprits to justice. In a statement, the Security Management Bureau under the Ministry of Public Security said that police will “crack down the crimes in accordance with the law without any tolerance.”
A Xinhua reporter on the scene in Kunming said several suspects had been “controlled” while police continued their investigation of people at the train station. The reporter said firefighters and emergency medical personnel were at the station and rushing injured people to hospitals for treatment.
Authorities said five suspects were shot dead but that their identities had not yet been confirmed, and police were hunting for the remaining attackers, Xinhua reported. The news agency said 29 people described as civilians were confirmed dead and 130 injured.
More than 60 victims of Saturday’s attack were taken to Kunming No. 1 People’s Hospital, where at least a dozen bodies also could be seen, according to Xinhua reporters at the hospital.
At a guard pavilion in front of the train station, three victims were crying. One of them, Yang Ziqing, told Xinhua that they were waiting for a train to Shanghai when a knife-wielding man suddenly came at them.
“My two town-fellows’ husbands have been rushed to hospital, but I can’t find my husband, and his phone went unanswered,” Yang sobbed.
Footage on China’s state broadcaster CCTV showed a heavy police presence near the station and plainclothes agents wrapping a long knife in a plastic bag as investigators collected evidence following the attacks.
Pictures on Sina Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter, showed bodies covered in blood at the station.
The Kunming railway station, located in the southeastern area of the city, is one of the largest in southwest China.
There’s something in the water. Everywhere.
Since firearms are illegal in China the terrorists have only knives at their disposal which cuts down the number of victims there could have been were they to do harm with semi automatic weapons. China will seek out the other terrorists who escaped within 48 hours of this hideous crime and they will be placed on death row.
Crime in China based on its population is statistically non existent and these incidents are very rare.
If the USA would make firearms illegal and follow Chinas lead by instituting Capitol punishment in every state perhaps this will cut out virtually all violent crimes and murders. The USA should learn from China on how to eradicate crime country wide which would enable our children to walk outdoors by themselves after nightfall even in the best neighborhoods across the USA!
To #2 - Unfortunately, violent crime is not unknown in China, even against strangers. For example, in 2008, at the Beijing Olympics, several Americans were attacked by a knife wielding psycho, without provocation, when they were walking from their hotel. One American was killed in that attack. The attacker then jumped off a building to his death. There have been other incidents, whereby attackers have invaded schools, and killed school children. True, it wasn’t done by guns, but it didn’t stop the perpetrators from committing murder. Several of the perpetrators were executed by the Chinese. A similar incident occurred in Japan, whereby a knife wielding psycho stabbed six people to death, in what was a relatively safe area in Tokyo. The cops could have killed him, but they captured him alive. My point is that even with the absence of firearms, heinous crimes with knives take place in those societies. Therefore, stop trying to paint the USA, as the only country, which has problems with violent crime.
“The far western region of Xinjiang is home to a simmering rebellion against Chinese rule by separatists among parts of the Muslim Uighur (pronounced WEE’-gur) population.”
“Muslim Uighur (pronounced WEE’-gur) population”
Anyone surprised?
Sounds to me like a spontaneous mob attack in response to a hateful anti Muslim video.
Reply to 3,4,5
Statistically China with a population of 1.4 billion has a violent crime rate close to zero. That says it all and attributed to two factors:
1- firearms are illegal
2- death sentence for violent crime
In light of above, you will find that anywhere at anytime in China even in the dead of the night there is absolutely no fear to walk any street alone for male or female alike!
Reply to # 7
Read last paragraph of comment # 9 which is the fact