By KUNA,
Tokyo : Up to 16 policemen were killed and 16 others injured in a suspected terrorist attack in northwest China’s Muslim-majority Xinjiang region on Monday, ahead of the opening of the August 8-24 Beijing Olympic Games, state-run Xinhua News Agency reported.
Two attackers drove a tip lorry into the police station to hit a team of policemen who were jogging nearby in a morning exercise in Kashgar city at about 8 a.m. (00:00 GMT), Xinhua said, citing police.
They got off the vehicle and threw two grenades at the station, causing an explosion, they said. Fourteen policemen were killed on the spot and two others died on the way to hospital.
The two attackers were arrested, and one of them suffered a leg injury in the raid. Police suspected a terrorist plot behind the raid.
The regional public security department has received clues suggesting that the “East Turkistan Islamic Movement” planned to make terrorist attacks during August 1-8, just ahead of the Olympic Games.
The Chinese government has earlier said that Muslim separatists from Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region pose a terrorist threat ahead of the Beijing Olympics. Xinjiang, where 8 million Uygur Muslims live, has been under China’s control since 1949.
In the first six months of this year, police in Xinjiang arrested 82 suspected terrorists who allegedly plotted sabotage against the Beijing Olympics.
China is stepping up efforts on Olympic security, with deployment of a 100, 000-strong anti-terrorism security force.