According to Xinhua, police in Xinjiang had "busted a terrorist gang" that was responsible for a September 18 attack on a Biacheng coal mine. In the attack by what Xinhua described as "armed mobsters," 11 civilians, two police officers and two para-police officers had been killed and 18 people injured.

Chinese police killed 28 members of a terrorist gang in a manhunt that lasted almost two months, state media agency Xinhua reported on Friday.

The short Xinhua report on Friday said that police had been tracking down the gang for 56 days, and that one "terrorist" had surrendered, while 28 others were killed. It did not give details on the manhunt or the killings.



The Xinhua story is the first official acknowledgement of the September 18 attack on the Sogan colliery. Unofficial reports at the time put the death toll much higher, with Radio Free Asia reporting that at least 50 people had been killed.

In a longer report on Friday, the Xinjiang Daily said that after the coal mine attack, the gang had fled into mountains and that 10,000 people had been involved in the search for them, Reuters reported.

Reuters quoted the media outlet as describing the gang as being "under the command of a foreign extremist group," adding that the 28 "thugs" were "completely annihilated."

According to Reuters, the Xinjiang Daily wrote that the two people who appeared to have Uighur names were the leaders of the unnamed foreign group running the gang.