BEIJING – Knife-wielding assailants went on the rampage in a busy shopping street, killing 13 people, before police shot seven of the attackers dead, in the latest outbreak of violence in restive Xinjiang province in western China, writes Clifford Coonan.
“Nine violent terrorists suddenly surged into the crowd and stabbed to death innocent people with their knives, causing 13 innocent people to die and injuring many,” the local government said in a statement on the tianshannet website.
Tensions have been running high in Kashgar between the mainly Muslim Turkic-speaking Uighurs and the Han Chinese, who make up the majority in China and are to be found in growing numbers in Xinjiang.