| CNN | - |
Hong
Kong (CNN) -- A series of explosions struck a market Thursday in the
capital of the volatile western Chinese region of Xinjiang, killing 31
people and wounding more than 90 others, state media reported.
Blasts kill dozens at market in China's restive Xinjiang region
updated 1:21 AM EDT, Thu May 22, 2014
Explosions in Xinjiang region of China
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- NEW: The explosions have killed 31 people and wounded over 90, Xinhua says
- China says the attack is "a serious violent terrorist incident"
- Two SUVs drive into people at a market in Urumqi, Xinhua reports
- Explosives are thrown from the vehicles, one of which blows up
China's Ministry of
Public Security said the attack was "a serious violent terrorist
incident" and vowed to crack down on its perpetrators.
Two SUVs plowed into
people gathered at the open market in Urumqi at 7:50 a.m., and
explosives were thrown out of the vehicles, China's official news agency
Xinhua said.
One of the SUVs then exploded, according to Xinhua, which cited a witness in the market who said he heard a dozen big bangs.
Images circulating on
social media showed flames and smoke billowing out from the end of a
tree-lined street guarded by police officers. Other pictures showed
wounded people being carried away from the scene of the blasts.
All of the wounded have been taken to several hospitals in the area, Xinhua reported, citing police.
String of recent attacks
The attack at the market
comes less than a month after an explosion hit a train station in
Urumqi, killing three people and wounding 79 others.
That blast, described as a
terrorist attack by Chinese authorities, took place on April 30, just
after Chinese President Xi Jinping had wrapped up a visit to the restive
region.
Location of incident
Chinese officials have
linked a mass knife attack in March that killed 29 people at a train
station in the southwestern city of Kunming to Islamic separatists from
Xinjiang.
They have also blamed
separatists for an attack in Beijing's Tiananmen Square in October in
which a car rammed into a pedestrian bridge and burst into flames,
killing two tourists and the three occupants of the vehicle.
Ethnic tensions
The knife-wielding
assailants in the Kunming attack and the people in the car that hit
Tiananmen were identified as Uyghurs, a Turkic-speaking, predominantly
Muslim ethnic group from Xinjiang.
Ethnic tensions between
Uyghurs and Han Chinese people, millions of whom have migrated to
resource-rich Xinjiang in recent decades, have repeatedly boiled over
into deadly violence in recent years.
Uyghurs say they resent
harsh treatment from Chinese security forces and Han people taking the
lion's share of economic opportunities in Xinjiang. The Han are the
predominant ethnic group in China, making up more than 90% of the
overall population.
The deadliest violence
in decades took place in July 2009, when rioting and clashes in Urumqi
between Uyghurs and Han Chinese killed around 200 people and wounded
1,700. That unrest was followed by a heavy crackdown by Chinese
authorities.
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