At least 28 people have been killed and 113 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.
Nothing is yet known of the motivation behind the attack, but the Chinese government claimed militants from the remote far western region of Xinjiang were responsible.
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.
Police shot dead five 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 toll of 162 injuries which was reported by state media has been reduced to 113. If confirmed the death toll would make the attack one of the deadliest in recent Chinese history.
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.
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.
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