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Chinese 'foiled airline attack' Gang 'plotted attack on Olympics'
(about 1 hour later)
Chinese officials say a plane crew prevented an apparent attempt to crash an airliner making a flight from western China to Beijing. Suspected militants arrested in western China earlier this year were planning attacks on the Beijing Olympics, a Chinese official says.
The China Southern Airlines plane landed safely despite an attempt "to create an air disaster," said Xinjiang Governor Nur Bekri. Two people were reported to have been killed and 15 arrested in a raid on 27 January in Urumqi, Xinjiang province.
Few details were given about Friday's alleged attack, which officials said was still being investigated. Officials now say their aim was to attack the August Olympics.
Officials have also warned of possible efforts to attack the Beijing Olympics. The alleged plot was disclosed as officials also revealed that a plane crew prevented an apparent attempt to crash a jet on an internal flight.
Friday's flight left the far western city of Urumqi, in Xinjiang province, Mr Bekri said. The incident occurred on Friday.
Then there was "an attempt to crash the plane", he said, though he gave no details. The flight also originated in Urumqi, and was bound for Beijing.
He said the crew responded and brought the plane to an emergency landing in the city of Lanzhou, in neighbouring Gansu province, with no damage or injuries. Those terrorists, saboteurs and secessionists are to be battered resolutely Wang LequanCommunist Party chief, Xinjiang
The China Southern Airlines plane landed safely despite an attempt "to create an air disaster", said Xinjiang Governor Nur Bekri.
He gave few details about the alleged attack.
"Who the people involved in the incident were, where they were from, what their aim was and what their background was, we are now investigating," he said.
But he said there was "an attempt to crash the plane", and that the crew responded and brought the plane to an emergency landing in the city of Lanzhou, in neighbouring Gansu province, with no damage or injuries.
Reuters quoted an anonymous source saying inflammable material was found in the plane's toilet, and that at least two passengers on the flight were taken into custody.Reuters quoted an anonymous source saying inflammable material was found in the plane's toilet, and that at least two passengers on the flight were taken into custody.
There was no confirmation of this.There was no confirmation of this.
Meanwhile, a top Communist Party official from the Xinjiang region said that suspected separatists killed in a raid in Muslim-dominated north-west China earlier this year had been planning an attack on the Olympic Games. 'Sabotage'
Mr Bekri was speaking on the sidelines of the annual session of parliament in Beijing.
At the same event, the boss of the Communist Party in Xianjing, Wang Lequan, said January's raid in Urumqi had thwarted a plot to attack the Olympics.
"Their aim was very clear," he said. "Specifically to sabotage the staging of the Beijing Olympics."
"Those terrorists, saboteurs and secessionists are to be battered resolutely, no matter what ethnic group they are from," said Mr Wang.
China has been struggling for years to contain separatist sentiment among the Uighur minority in Xinjiang.
Some Uighurs have campaigned for the mainly Muslim province to become an independent republic.