China is reeling from its third knife attack at a train station in as many months.
Chinese state media reported six people were injured in the attack in Guangzhou. They are all reportedly being treated for non-life threatening injuries. (Via Euronews)
State-run news outlet Xinhua offered few details except to say police caught one male suspect who was armed with a knife.
We do know, according to the South China Morning Post, witnesses say there were four attackers all wearing white hats and shirts. This video shows police nabbing one of the suspects who matches that description. The other suspects reportedly fled the scene.
The incident comes less than a week after two men armed with explosives and knives injured nearly 80 people and killed one civilian at a railway station in Xinjiang. (Via Shangaiist)
And a similar attack in March — knife-wielding men at a train station in the southwest of the country killed 29 people and injured more than 100. (Via ITN)
Chinese officials haven’t yet identified the attackers or speculated on a motive in this latest knifing spree. But as was the case with the previous two attacks, the blame is likely to fall on separatists from China's western region of Xinjiang.
Xinjiang is home to the Uighurs — they’re ethnically Turkic Muslims who have a history of animosity with Chinese authorities. (Via Wikimedia Commons / Joowww)
They complain of social and political repression from China's communist government. Ethnic riots between Uighurs and the region’s Han majority have risen in the past few years and have begun spilling over outside the region. (Via NTDTV)
The Financial Times notes more than 100 people died in the past year as a result of this renewed ethnic violence.
That includes this suicide car crash in Beijing’s symbolic Tiananmen Square that killed five in October. (Via ABC)
Time’s Hannah Beech writes the increase in separatist attacks seems to have backfired — “[making] the Uighur campaign for sympathy — much less meaningful autonomy —a tougher sell. And each bout of violence brings another security crackdown that may only serve to alienate more Uighurs.”
Chinese President Xi Jinping recently vowed new measures to combat terrorism — that includes deploying more armed police across the region.
