This article documents a current event. Information may change rapidly as the event progresses. (March 2014)
2014 Kunming attack
A view of Kunming Railway Station
Location Kunming, Yunnan, China
Coordinates 25°1′3″N 102°43′15″ECoordinates: 25°1′3″N 102°43′15″E
Date 1 March 2014
9:20 p.m. (Beijing time)
Target Kunming Railway Station
Attack type Knife attack
Deaths 33 (including four perpetrators)
Injured (non-fatal) 143
Perpetrators 8[1]
On 1 March 2014, a group of eight knife-wielding men and women attacked passengers at the Kunming Railway Station in the city of Kunming, the capital of Yunnan province of China.[2] At least 33 people were killed, including four assailants and one police officer, and 143 others were injured.[3] Both male and female attackers were seen to pull out long-bladed knives, before stabbing and slashing passengers.[4] Kunming's government had linked the attack to Xinjiang militants.[5][2] A black, hand-painted East Turkestan flag was confiscated by the police at the scene.[6][7]
At the scene, police killed four assailants[8][9] and captured one injured female. In the afternoon of 3 March, police announced that the three remaining suspects had been arrested.[1]
Contents [hide]
1 Terrorist Attacks
2 Initial response
3 Reactions
3.1 Domestic
3.2 International
4 Misreports of western media
5 Notes
6 References
Terrorist Attacks[edit]
At 9:20 pm Beijing Time on 1 March 2014,[10] eight terrorists wearing black clothes rushed into the square and ticket lobby of Kunming Railway Station and started to attack people indiscriminately.
At least 29 people were killed and 143 were injured (including seven policemen) during the attack. Among the fatalities were two security guards employed by the station. All the wounded were sent to 11 hospitals in Kunming.[11] Police initially attempted to subdue the attackers using tear gas shells but were unable to do so,[12] before shooting four suspects and arresting one. A wounded female suspect was detained at the scene and sent to a hospital.[13]
Yang Haifei, a victim who sustained several injuries in the attack, said he was buying a ticket when a group of people rushed into the station, most of them in black dress, and started attacking others with knives. He also said that the attackers attacked the people like "maniacal swordsmen", and they mostly went for the head, neck and the shoulders to kill them.[14]
China News Service quoted a Mr. Tan, who remembered seven to eight attackers indiscriminately slashing people regardless of age, even stabbing the wounded on the floor until they were dead. He also saw a police officer carrying a child of about 5 or 6, with slashed pants and blood streaming down the legs.[15]
Initial response[edit]
After the incident, all the trains originally scheduled to stop at Kunming Station were provisionally arranged to stop at other places until 11:00 p.m. on 1 March when services gradually resumed.[13] Personnel at the Changshui International Airport also held an emergency meeting and tightened security though they state that they are operating normally.[16]
There were scattered news reports suggesting that similar attacks occurred in Dashuying in the Jinma subdistrict of Kunming, but local police have stated that reports of "several places suffering attacks" are only rumors.[17]
The Red Cross Society of China sent a team to Yunnan in the morning of 2 March to direct the Yunnan Red Cross Society to assist with rescue efforts and to provide counseling to the relatives of victims and shocked civilians.[18]
On 2 March, armed policemen patrolled the area around Kunming Railway Station.[19][20] In the early morning, citizens began to put flowers on the square in front of the station to mourn the dead.[21] At 13:00, the Kunming Police disclosed some information of two suspects, one woman and one man, according to statements of witnesses.[22]
In the aftermath of the attack, Kunming police began rounding up members of the small local Uyghur community for questioning. On 3 March the Ministry of Public Security announced that police had arrested three suspects and said that an eight-person terrorist group was responsible for the attack. Abdurehim Kurban[note 1] was named as the leader of the group.[23][24][1]
Reactions[edit]
Domestic[edit]
After the terrorist attack, CPC general secretary Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang assigned Meng Jianzhu, Secretary of the Central Politics and Law Comm... 查看完整评论