This article is more than 6 years old

This article is more than 6 years old

Chinese police have shot dozens of knife-wielding attackers dead after they staged assaults on two towns in the western Xinjiang region.

Citing police, the official Xinhua news agency said on Tuesday that a gang armed with knives had first attacked a police station and government offices in the town of Elixku, in Shache county. Some then moved on to the nearby town of Huangdi, attacking civilians and setting fire to vehicles.

Xinhua said dozens of people were killed or injured in the attacks, which took place on Monday, but gave no precise figures.

"Initial investigations showed that it was a premeditated terror attack. Further investigation is under way," the agency said.

Xinjiang, home to many Turkic-speaking Uighurs, has a long history of violence, which the government blames on Islamists who it says want to establish an independent state called East Turkestan.

Uighur activists say repressive Chinese cultural and religious policies have fuelled resentment, along with a sense that the benefits of economic growth in the region, which is rich in natural resources, flow disproportionately to migrants from the country's Han Chinese majority.

Beijing has said that those behind the violence have ties to overseas terror groups, but it has provided little evidence to back up its claim.

Calls to more than a half-dozen police stations and government offices in the area either rang unanswered on Tuesday evening or were answered by people who confirmed the attack, but said they were not permitted to release any information about it.

Obtaining details of violence in the remote region is usually impossible and authorities routinely prevent foreign journalists from working freely in the area.