Police at a train station in the Chinese city of Xian shot an ethnic Uighur man who had charged into a ticket line holding a brick, police said on Wednesday, adding the man later died.<\/p>\n
Wed Jun 17, 2015 4:13am EDT<\/p>\n
Police at a train station in the Chinese city of Xian shot an ethnic Uighur man who had charged into a ticket line holding a brick, police said on Wednesday, adding the man later died.<\/p>\n
Public sensitivity to security at China’s railway stations has increased following a series of incidents including a mass stabbing at a train station last year in the southwestern city of Kunming that left 31 dead.<\/p>\n
Authorities said that was carried out by separatist militants from the far western region of Xinjiang, home to the Muslim Uighur people, who speak a Turkic language.<\/p>\n
In a brief statement on its official microblog, the railway police in Xian said that at about 6 a.m. a Uighur man holding a brick “charged into” a line of people waiting to buy tickets.<\/p>\n
“On duty police quickly got to the scene to stop (him), and after repeated warnings were ignored opened fire and injured (him),” police said.<\/p>\n
The man died of his wounds in hospital, police said, adding the situation had returned to normal at the station.<\/p>\n
The statement was later amended without explanation to remove reference to the man’s ethnicity.<\/p>\n
Police provided no other details. Xian is a popular tourist destination as it is close to the famous Terracotta Army.<\/p>\n
A picture on state television’s microblog showed a body on the ground, which had been pixilated out, on what looked like a square in front of the station with the old city walls behind it. The body was surrounded by police, two of whom carried riot shields.<\/p>\n
This week is the beginning of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, a sensitive time in Xinjiang especially following an increase in deadly attacks blamed by Beijing on Islamist militants over the past three years in which hundreds have died.<\/p>\n
China has about 20 million Muslims spread throughout the country, only a portion of whom are Uighur.<\/p>\n
Exiled Uighur groups and human rights activists say the government’s repressive policies in Xinjiang, including restrictions on religious practices, have provoked unrest.<\/p>\n
The government denies that.<\/p>\n
(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Jeremy Laurence, Robert Birsel)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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