Beijing: At least 37 civilians were killed and another 13 injured in a terrorist attack earlier this week in China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.
The attack took place in Shache county of Kashgar prefecture. Police gunned down 59 terrorists and arrested 215 others, the regional government was quoted as saying after a meeting on Saturday presided by Zhang Chunxian, secretary of the regional committee of the Communist Party of China.
The case was first reported on Tuesday, but no figures were given except that dozens of people died.
Among the dead were 35 Hans and two Uygurs, the government said.
Thirty one vehicles were smashed in the violent attack.
Police confiscated long knives, axes as well as the terrorists' banners that hailed ‘holy war'.
A gang armed with knives and axes attacked a police station and government offices in Elixku township early on Monday morning and some moved on to the nearby Huangdi township, attacking civilians and smashing vehicles as they passed.
Investigations showed that it was an ‘organized and premeditated' terror attack linked with the terrorist group East Turkestan Islamic Movement, the government said.
Shache county witnessed another terror attack in December last year when nine knife-wielding terrorists attacked a police station. They threw explosives and set police cars on fire. Police shot dead eight terrorists.
On May 22, an attack on a market in Urumqi, the regional capital, left 31 dead and 94 injured.
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