All news

Terrorist attack thwarted in north-west China, six suspected militants killed

There were no casualties reported neither among the policemen nor civilians
Police officers China's Xinjiang province AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko
Police officers China's Xinjiang province
© AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko

BEIJING, January 12. /TASS/. Police in China’s north-west Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region killed six suspected militants and thwarted an attempted terrorist attack, Xinhua news agency reported on Monday.

According to the agency, local residents spotted a suspicious man with a parcel at a commercial district of the Shule County around 10am local time and notified the police.

As police officers apprehended the suspect, he attacked them with an axe and tried to detonate an explosive device, which was disguised as a parcel. The suspect was shot dead by policemen.

While policemen were dealing with the suspect, five more people with explosive devices attacked the law enforcers, but were shot dead as well.

There were no casualties reported neither among the policemen nor civilians.

The country’s volatile Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region is populated by Uyghur Muslims and the titular Chinese nation of Han. Militants from the Islamic East Turkestan Movement stand for the region’s secession from China and were behind a series of terrorist attacks in the region targeting law enforcers and civilians.

Last May, the region was hit by the bloodiest terrorist attack over the recent years, when a series of explosions ripped through an open-air market in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. A total of 39 people were killed and 86 more wounded after two SUVs rammed into the crowd of shoppers early in the morning, when the market was packed with people. One of the vehicles blew up, while explosives were cast from the other one.

Between May and July last year, China conducted a large-scale anti-terrorism operation in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region,clamping down on over 40 terrorist groups and arresting some 400 suspects.