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Six injured in knife attack at Chinese train station Six injured in knife attack at Chinese train station
(about 1 hour later)
Six people were injured in a knife attack at a busy railway station in southern China, police said – the third high-profile attack at a Chinese train station in a little more than two months. Knife-wielding assailants have wounded six people at a train station in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou – the country's third train station attack since March.
The incident happened in Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong province. Officers shot and subdued a male suspectafter he failed to respond to a warning. At about 11am on Tuesday, four men dressed in white shirts and hats began slashing at people in and around the station with long knives, official media reported. Police opened fire on the attackers after they ignored warnings, injuring one. One other assailant was arrested, and two apparently escaped.
It was not clear from the police statement whether there was more than one assailant. The Guangzhou Daily cited witnesses as saying there were four attackers. It said the injured included a person who was stabbed in the head and neck and was in critical condition, and others who received arm wounds. Police said six people were injured and taken to hospital, not including the suspect. Last Wednesday, three people were killed and 79 wounded in a bomb attack at a railway station in the far-west region of Xinjiang, hours after President Xi Jinping finished a four-day tour of the region vowing to step up anti-terrorism efforts.
There has been heightened security countrywide in the wake of two train station attacks blamed on extremists from the far west of China. Last week, a suicide bombing at a train station in Xinjiang – where extremists among the Turkic Uighur Muslim population have for years been waging a simmering insurgency against Beijing – left three people dead and 79 injured. That attack prompted the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, to demand "decisive actions" against terrorism. In early March, five attackers with knives and machetes killed 29 people and injured more than 130 at a train station in the south-western city Kunming.
In March, five knife-wielding men and women believed to be Uighurs slashed at crowds at a railway station in Kunming city, in south-west China, killing 29 people. Four attackers were killed by police. Both incidents have been blamed on ethnic Uighur "terrorists" from Xinjiang. The identities of the attackers in Guangzhou remain unclear. No motive has been given for the attack.
One witness told the Guangzhou Daily that two attackers squatted by a snack stand for about two hours. Suddenly they shouted, pulled knives from their bags and began slashing at people.
Other witnesses told the South China Morning Post that the injured included at least two women and three men, including a "westerner who appeared to be in his 50s". One victim is said to be in critical condition; others suffered wounds to their hands and arms.
Pictures posted online showed two men carrying a wounded man outside of a McDonald's in a public square, his shirt soaked with blood. Other pictures showed bloodstains on the empty flagstone square and large crowds of onlookers assembled behind police cordons.
Although police cordoned off the station's exit following the attack, local media reported, the station is now operating as normal.