Knife-wielding men kill 4, injure 8 in China, Xinjiang

USPA News - Four people have been killed and eight others have been injured after a knife attack in northwestern China, local authorities confirmed on Friday, but few details were released amid fears the incident could trigger further unrest. At least one suspect was taken into custody.

A local government spokeswoman said the incident occurred on Thursday afternoon in Korla, a city in China`s Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, when several knife-wielding men attacked people. She described the attackers as members of a Uighur ethnic group and said one of them had been taken into custody. Officials confirmed four people were killed while eight others were injured, although their conditions were not immediately known. It was also unclear whether the attack was politically motivated, and state-run media did not report on the incident amid fears the incident could trigger further unrest in the region. Xinjiang was the scene of violent clashes between Uighur Muslims and Han Chinese in July 2009, leaving 197 people killed and more than 1,700 others injured. The riots were the region`s worst ethnic clashes in decades and the violence only stopped when a large number of troops were deployed to the remote western region. Following the riots, China cut all communications from the region to the rest of the world, including international phone calls, text messaging, and the Internet. Thousands of additional security forces have since been deployed and thousands of `riot-proof` closed-circuit television cameras have been set up in public places in an attempt to discourage any violence or unrest. An estimated eight million Uighurs are now living in the Central Asian region of Xinjiang. A large number of Uighur are reportedly unhappy about the large migrant Han Chinese settlers, accusing them of making their interests less important and generally disregarding their culture.