Train station mass stabbing attack 'was China's 9/11'

The chilling violence at a Chinese train station which left at least 29 people dead is being seen in China "as a 9/11 style event" says Telegraph's Tom Phillips

Officials said a group of knife-wielding "terrorists" from the restive Xinjiang region launched a premeditated attack at the Kunming Railway Station in China's southwest on Saturday night. More than 130 people were wounded. Armed riot police stood guard as people streamed into the railway station on Sunday only hours after the attack, one of the worst of its kind in China in recent memory. Police shot four of the attackers dead and captured one, state news agency Xinhua reported. About five others were on the run, it said. Xinhua quoted the Kunming city government as saying evidence at the crime scene showed the attack was carried out by Xinjiang separatist forces. Word of the violence spread quickly, with graphic pictures that showed bodies covered in blood posted to the Twitter-like microblogging service Sina Weibo – posts that were later deleted by government censors. State television showed police wrapping a long, sword-like knife in a plastic bag.

Shop and restaurant workers said hundreds of people had fled into their stores seeking refuge. Scores of patients from the attack spilt into corridors from overflowing wards at Kunming's No 1 People's Hospital where they were being treated. In the neurosurgery department, several patients had head injuries. China's domestic security chief, Meng Jianzhu, vowed those responsible would be brought to justice. Telegraph's Tom Phillips reporting from the scene said the attack recalled the fear and chaos felt after the attack on the World Trade Center in New York on 11 September 2001. "This is very much being seen here as a 9/11 style event. It's by far the worse incident of its kind in China and it will have a huge impact on what will happen here," he said.