A group armed with knives attacked people in a train station in Kunming located in Yunnan province in southern China.
Knife-wielding terrorists kill 28 and injure over 160 in Chinese train station attack
By Harry Alsop
At least 28 people have been killed, and 162 others injured, in a knife attack at a train station in south-western Chinese city of Kunming.
The incident “was an organised, premeditated violent terrorist attack” carried out by “unidentified knife-wielding people”, according to state media.
The attack took place late in the evening
Police shot dead at least five of the alleged perpetrators at the train station in south-western Yunnan province, according to local television station K6.
A victim named Yang Haifei, who was wounded in the chest and back, said he had been buying a train ticket when he saw a group of people, mostly wearing black, rush into the station and start attacking bystanders.
“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”.
No motive for this shocking attack has been disclosed by Chinese authorities and the attackers have not been identified as their investigation continues. Some of the attackers were said to be women on posts by witnesses to the attack on Weibo that have been subsequently taken down by Chinese censors.
China says its first major suicide attack, in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in October, involved militants from Xinjiang, home to the Muslim Uighur people.
Yunnan has no recent history of terrorist attacks. Yunnan is China's most ethnically diverse Provence with some 25 ethnic minorities most of whom reside in
ethnic enclaves that cover most of the Provence.
I did find a report of a recent attack on a Police Station in Yunnan by a group of disgruntled villagers unhappy with a factory's operation in their village.
Suspects identified in Yunnan police station attack
February 12, 2014
Police in southwest China's Yunnan Province have identified 16 suspects in a violent attack on a local police station last week, local authorities said on Wednesday.
On Feb. 3, around 100 Baha villagers destroyed manufacturing facilities at the Jiangnan iron and alloy factory over an environmental dispute, it said.
Following the police station assault, a work team dispatched by the county government ordered the factory to move out of the village within a year after consulting villagers. The factory's operation was suspended by authorities in October 2013.
Chinese villagers attack factory after reports of polluting
This incident which left two people injured seems to be unrelated to yesterday's lethal knife attacks, but it reveals some of the tensions resulting from rapid industrialization done with little regard for environmental concerns of nearby residents.