Dozens killed in south China train station knife attack

A group of four armed with knives killed at least 29 people in a “violent terror attack” at a train station in China’s southwestern city of Kunming, state media reported Sunday. The four assailants were shot dead by Chinese police.

Another 162 were injured, the official Xinhua news agency said. It said the attack had taken place late Saturday and several suspects had been detained.

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.

The Chinese government blamed militants from the restive far western region of Xinjiang on Sunday for the attack.

Chinese President Xi Jinping ordered that no effort be spared to track down those behind the attack.

"Severely punish in accordance with the law the violent terrorists and resolutely crack down on those who have been swollen with arrogance," Xinhua quoted him as saying.

Kunming resident Yang Haifei told Xinhua that he was buying a 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. Those who were slower were caught by the attackers. They just fell on the ground."

Graphic pictures on the Twitter-like microblogging service Sina Weibo showed bodies covered in blood lying on the ground at the station.

State television's microblog said domestic security chief Meng Jianzhu was on his way to the scene.

Weibo users took to the service to describe details of what happened, though many of those posts were quickly deleted by government censors – especially those that described the attackers, two of whom were identified by some as women.

Others condemned the attack.

"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," one user wrote.

The attack marks a major escalation in the simmering unrest which had centered on Xinjiang, a heavily Muslim region located on the borders of Central Asia.

It is the first time people from Xinjiang have been blamed for carrying out such a large-scale attack so far from their homeland, and follows an incident in Beijing's Tiananmen Square in October which shook the country's Communist leadership.

China has stepped up security in Xinjiang after a vehicle plowed into tourists on the edge of Tiananmen Square, killing the three people in the car and two bystanders. China labeled it a suicide attack by militants from Xinjiang.

Al Jazeera and wire services