URUMQI, China — They were hard-core bargain hunters, gray-haired bus drivers and bureaucrats on modest pensions who woke up early to find the cheapest produce in this increasingly expensive city. For the driver of the sport utility vehicle seeking to maximize the mayhem, they were the easiest of targets.

“The driver zigzagged down the street like he was drunk, knocking people over and crushing others under the tires,” one witness said. “These poor old people never had a chance.” Moments later, another S.U.V. barreled down North Park Street, its occupants tossing small explosive devices out of the windows as the driver ran over those who lay wounded in the street.

By the time the vehicles exploded at opposite ends of the block, 43 people were dead, including four of the assailants, and more than 90 people were wounded, according to an updated casualty list. A fifth suspect was arrested Thursday night, the state media reported. Most of the victims were ethnic Han, the dominant ethnic group in China.

On Friday morning, a day after one of China’s worst terrorist attacks in recent memory, North Park Street had a veneer of normalcy. The bakeries, noodle makers and fishmongers were open for business. A restaurant serving rice pilaf and lamb was packed with Uighur men and young bank employees on their lunch break. A few paces from the shattered window of a pawnshop, schoolchildren in matching track suits boisterously traded penny candy.