Mass 'terrorist' attack leaves 29 dead in Kunming

Twenty nine people are dead and at least 130 injured in a mass knife attack at the Kunming train station on Saturday night. Witnesses report that 10 assailants, dressed in black stormed the station and began stabbing and hacking indiscriminately. Xinhua reports that police shot and killed four attackers and wounded one female. Xinhua said the attack was carried out by members of a separatist group from Xinjiang province, referring to them as "terrorists."

"Suddenly, many people started running around crazily,"  said witness Lu Haiyan on Weibo. "We saw two people carrying big cleavers hacking whoever is in the way. They almost got to my back. Then I lost contact with (my friend) and I saw blood splashing in front of me."

Images on CCTV show police putting a knife with a 2 foot blade into an evidence bag, in a ticket hall strewn with bodies and belongings. A massive search is underway to find the remaining 'terrorists.' President Xi Jinping is urging local police to ensure safety in public places and use every resource to find the assailants, so that they can be be brought to justice.

This is not the first mass knife attack in China, in 2010 and 2012 some occurred in schools, but did not seem to be politically motivated. Two weeks ago, 11 'terrorists' were killed in Xinjiang, an area which has seen bursts of violence, connected to the tensions between the influx of Han Chinese in the predominantly Muslim region.

[Photo credit: News.cn]