HONG KONG — At least 16 people were killed late Sunday in Xinjiang, the ethnically tense region of far western China, when the police clashed with attackers who used explosives and knives, according to the region’s news service.

A brief report from the Tianshan news service on Monday did not give details of the attack, but it appeared to be the latest spasm of ethnic violence in the region. The report said the bloodshed occurred late at night in Shufu County near Kashgar, a part of Xinjiang plagued by tensions between Muslim Uighurs and the government authorities.

The police in Shufu County were trying to catch a criminal suspect when they were attacked by a group of “rioters” with explosives and knives, the report said. Two police officers died, while the police fatally shot 14 attackers and captured two others, according to the report. Investigations into the events were underway, it said.

Repeated calls to government and police offices in the town where the bloodshed occurred brought no response; calls were not answered, or officials promptly hung up. A spokeswoman for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Hua Chunying, told reporters at a daily briefing in Beijing that the attack was the work of a “terror gang,” but she gave no details about its motives or ethnic composition.