China vows to find perpetrators of Kunming train station stabbing rampage

Updated

Chinese security officials have pledged to spare no effort to catch the remaining perpetrators of a deadly stabbing frenzy on commuters, which left 29 dead and more than 130 injured.

Officials have blamed about 10 Muslim separatists from Xinjiang province for the "terrorist attack" at Kunming train station, in China's south-west, on Saturday night (local time).

Four of the attackers were shot dead by police and one was captured. About five others are on the run, according to state news agency Xinhua.

China's security chief Meng Jianzhu says all resources will be mobilised to catch anyone else involved.

"This brutal attack on defenceless, innocent people by violent terrorists devoid of conscience exposes their inhuman and anti-social nature," Xinhua quoted Mr Meng as saying.

"They inevitably will face the severe punishment of the law. We must mobilise all resources and adopt all means to break this case."

The government says this was a pre-meditated terrorist attack, coming in the days before the all-important National People's Congress.

The station has been placed under heavy security, with armed riot police standing guard on Sunday as passengers streamed into the station.

Attackers 'like crazy swordsmen': witness

Witnesses to the attack have recalled moments of fear and chaos after the group of knife-wielding terrorists, who were dressed in black, descended on the train station.

Standing near shops about 50 metres from the site, a parking attendant surnamed Chen said he could not believe what was happening when he saw the attackers.

"I walked out and I saw a person with a knife this big," Mr Chen said, spreading his arms wide.

"Then I saw five or six of them. They all had knives and they were stabbing people madly over by the first and second ticket offices."

A 20-year-old university student, Wu Yuheng, says the attackers tried to target people's heads.

One had swiped his long knife and just nicked him on the scalp.

"I was terrified ... they attacked us like crazy swordsmen, and mostly they went for the head and the shoulders, those parts of the body to kill," he said, lying on a hospital bed.

"This attack has caused great harm to innocent people but I think before we are sure about the identity of the attackers, we shouldn't make wild guesses on who to blame."

Shop and restaurant workers say hundreds of people fled into their stores seeking refuge.

"Last night, everyone ran over into my supermarket. The supermarket was full of people, including two passengers who had been stabbed," Ren Guangqin, 28, said inside his supermarket.

"I was terrified. They were killing people. How could I not be scared?"

Censors delete graphic images shared on social media

Word of the violence spread quickly, with graphic pictures that showed bodies covered in blood posted to the microblogging service Sina Weibo - posts that were later deleted by government censors.

State television showed police wrapping a long, sword-like knife in a plastic bag.

The attack marks a major escalation in the simmering unrest that has centred on Xinjiang, a heavily Muslim region in China's far west strategically located on the borders of Central Asia.

It is the first time people from Xinjiang have been blamed for carrying out such a large-scale attack so far from their homeland, and follows a smaller incident in Beijing's Tiananmen Square in October that shook the Communist Party leadership.

China stepped up security in Xinjiang after a vehicle ploughed into tourists on the edge of Tiananmen Square, killing the three people in the car and two bystanders.

China labelled it a suicide attack by militants from Xinjiang.

Map: Kunming train station in China

ABC/Reuters

Topics: terrorism, murder-and-manslaughter, law-crime-and-justice, unrest-conflict-and-war, china

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