Nine axe-wielding assailants have been shot dead during an attack on a police station in China's volatile western Xinjiang province, state media say.

Xinhua news agency reports that two auxiliary police officers died in Saturday's clashes in Bachu county's Serikbuya, near the city of Kashgar.

Another two policemen were injured. Xinhua provided no further details.

Xinjiang - where Muslim Uighurs make up a large part of the population - has seen several clashes this year.

Last month, five people died when a car ploughed into a crowd in Beijing's Tiananmen Square - an attack the authorities blamed on the separatist East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM).

China often blames the ETIM for incidents in Xinjiang. But the BBC correspondent in Beijing says few believe that the group has any capacity to carry out any serious acts of terror in China.

Uighur groups claim China uses ETIM as an excuse to justify repressive security in Xinjiang.

There are nine million Uighurs living in the province, but they are now a minority in the region, which is now dominated politically and economically by Han Chinese.

There were violent clashes in Xinjiang in April, June and August this year.