Knife massacre in Chinese railway station leaves 34 dead

The mass stabbing has been dubbed a ‘terrorist attack’ by the authorities

Separatist forces have been blamed for a ‘terrorist attack’ in a Chinese railway station which left 34 people dead and more than 140 wounded.
More than ten assailants converged on Kunming station in Yunnan province yesterday armed with knives.


The gang stormed the busy public area – one of China’s largest stations – attacking at 9.20pm local time, where they began butchering innocent bystanders.

An injured man lies on a hospital bed after the knife attack

Authorities said that the ‘premeditated violent terrorist attack’ was organised and carried out by ‘Xinjiang separatist forces’.
The death toll includes four of the attackers who were shot by police, as well as an injured officer who died in hospital today.

Most of the mob were dressed in black, it has emerged, while a female suspect has also been arrested, the South China Morning Post reports.

Officials believe that the assault was carried out by ethnic separatists

An eyewitness told the Beijing Times: ‘Six or seven men in black holding knives rushed towards us, stabbing everyone in front of them.
‘In protecting his six-year-old daughter, [my fellow countryman Pan Huabing] was sliced from chest to neck and then fell on the ground with blood pouring out from the wound.

29 members of the public were killed in the attack

‘Some of the assailants were in masks, others were not. The weapons they used were 60cm-long hacking knives and 30cm-long daggers.’
The region of Xinjiang borders Mongolia, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, and is home to an escalating revolt against Chinese rule by some Muslim Uighur nationalists.

Armed paramilitary policemen patrol near Kunming’s railway station the morning after the bloody massacre