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 9pm local time (1pm GMT) as an 'organised, premeditated, violent terrorist attack.'
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.
Many posts describing the attack on the Chinese Twitter-like micro-blogging site Weibo, where photos of the carnage were first posted, were reportedly deleted by government censors.
Reuters reported the quickest posts to be scrubbed were those that described the attackers, two of whom were identified by some as women.
Lockdown: Police investigate after the attack at Kunming railway station
Others condemned the attack. One user wrote: '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.' A woman staying at a hotel near the station told the South China Morning Post she was terrified to leave.'Our guests who walked passed the train station told us not to leave the hotel because the situation is dangerous,' she said. 'We dare not leave the hotel right now. There are many police outside. We just fear that not all the attackers have been caught.' Why the attackers struck or whether they were a member of a dissident group was not immediately known.
However, China has seen a number of mass stabbings and other attacks carried out by people bearing grudges against society.
In June last year at least 27 people were killed after gangs armed with knives attacked a police station and a local government building in a remote region of western China.
Mobs in the Xinjiang region, home to a large Muslim Uighur minority, were said to have set upon buildings in the township of Lukqun at around 6am, stabbing people and setting fire to police cars.
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.
China has blamed similar incidents on Islamist extremists operating in the restive far western region of Xinjiang, though such attacks have generally been limited to Xinjiang itself.
China says its first major suicide attack, in Beijing's Tiananmen Square in October, involved militants from Xinjiang, home to the Muslim Uighur people.
There is unrest among many Uighurs at restrictions laid down by the Chinese authorities on their culture and religion.
Hu Xijin, the editor of the influential Global Times newspaper, said it was important not to allow a 'vacuum' in which groups could be unfairly blamed for the train station attack.
'If it was Xinjiang seperatists, it needs to be announced promptly, as hearsay should not be allowed to fill the vacuum,' he wrote.
The Global Times is published by the ruling Communist Party's official People's Daily.
The Security Management Bureau under the Ministry of Public Security called the incident a 'severe violent crime'.
'No matter what motives the murderers hold, the killing of innocent people is against kindness and justice,' it said.
'The police will crack down the crimes in accordance with the law without any tolerance. May the dead rest in peace.'
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 9pm local time (1pm GMT) as an 'organised, premeditated, violent terrorist attack.'
Probe: Police have cordoned off Kunming Railway Station in Yunnan province, one of the busiest in China in a city of six million people, after a gang of knife-wielding 'terror' attackers stabbed dozens of people
Horror: Photos shared on the Chinese micro-blogging site Weibo showed bodies strewn across the floor covered in blood. Initial reports suggest 28 people have been killed and another 113 were injured
Distressing: Photos circulated widely on the internet showed a line-up of bodies on the station floor surrounded by medical equipment. The majority of the photos are too graphic to publish
Emergency: Medics were still treating people in the station hours after the attack, said a Chinese news agency
Abandoned: Travel bags surrounded by blood lie strewn across then floor of the terminal, protected by police
Carnage: The attack was described as a 'violent terror attack' by state television
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.
Strewn: Photos showed luggage scattered across the floor of the station as people ran for their lives
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.
Many posts describing the attack on the Chinese Twitter-like micro-blogging site Weibo, where photos of the carnage were first posted, were reportedly deleted by government censors.
Reuters reported the quickest posts to be scrubbed were those that described the attackers, two of whom were identified by some as women.
Major city: The attack was at the main railway station for Kunming in south west China, the capital of Yunnan province which has more than six million inhabitants. It handles up to 75,000 passengers a day
Horror: A woman talks tearfully on the phone outside the station. The city is said to be in a state of shock
Reaction: Officers cordoned off the area around the station and reportedly shot five attackers dead
Devastation: Police, firefighters, paramedics and shocked citizens gathered near the station
Cordon: Initial figures suggested 162 people were injured, though this was later revised downwards
Panic: A witness said people ran in all directions and the slower ones were caught and hacked to death
Others condemned the attack. One user wrote: '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.' A woman staying at a hotel near the station told the South China Morning Post she was terrified to leave.'Our guests who walked passed the train station told us not to leave the hotel because the situation is dangerous,' she said. 'We dare not leave the hotel right now. There are many police outside. We just fear that not all the attackers have been caught.' Why the attackers struck or whether they were a member of a dissident group was not immediately known.
Armed: Security is already heightened in China ahead of an annual meeting of Parliament on Wednesday
Hundreds of police officers and medics descended on the busy station after the attack at about 9pm local time
However, China has seen a number of mass stabbings and other attacks carried out by people bearing grudges against society.
SERIES OF KNIFE ATTACKS IN CHINA
The attack is the latest and one of the most deadly in a series of mass stabbings in the last few years. A catalogue of random attacks, many of them on schools, began in 2010 and culminated in the massacre of 22 children and an elderly woman outside a primary school in Henan province in December 2012. The attack was followed by one last June by gangs armed with knifes who set upon a police station and local government building in western China.While some of the stabbings are by murderers acting alone, others are said to be lashing out against the Chinese state. The cause of the train station attack is still being investigated.
Mobs in the Xinjiang region, home to a large Muslim Uighur minority, were said to have set upon buildings in the township of Lukqun at around 6am, stabbing people and setting fire to police cars.
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.
China has blamed similar incidents on Islamist extremists operating in the restive far western region of Xinjiang, though such attacks have generally been limited to Xinjiang itself.
China says its first major suicide attack, in Beijing's Tiananmen Square in October, involved militants from Xinjiang, home to the Muslim Uighur people.
There is unrest among many Uighurs at restrictions laid down by the Chinese authorities on their culture and religion.
Standing guard: Police have been trying to establish why the gang of men burst into the station
Pistol: Five knifemen - including the one in the background - were shot dead by police and more were held
Hu Xijin, the editor of the influential Global Times newspaper, said it was important not to allow a 'vacuum' in which groups could be unfairly blamed for the train station attack.
'If it was Xinjiang seperatists, it needs to be announced promptly, as hearsay should not be allowed to fill the vacuum,' he wrote.
The Global Times is published by the ruling Communist Party's official People's Daily.
The Security Management Bureau under the Ministry of Public Security called the incident a 'severe violent crime'.
'No matter what motives the murderers hold, the killing of innocent people is against kindness and justice,' it said.
'The police will crack down the crimes in accordance with the law without any tolerance. May the dead rest in peace.'
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