Truck and explosives attack kills 16 officers

Source: Xinhua  |   2008-8-5  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

ATTACKERS drove a dump truck into a group of policemen and threw explosives at them, killing at least 16 officers yesterday morning in Kashi City in western China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

The two attackers were identified as Uygur men, aged 28 and 33, police said.

The two men were held on the spot after the attack which also injured 16 policemen outside the gates of the Kashi border police division.

Kashi police said one of the attackers drove a truck that rammed into a squad of more than 70 policemen jogging past the Yiquan Hotel in a regular morning exercise at about 8am. As this happened the other man threw a home-made explosive device at the gate of the station.

According to police, the truck ran into a power pole at the side of the road and the driver jumped out and threw explosives at the policemen.

Police said the driver blew one of his own arms off when he lit one of his explosive devices.

Police later found 10 home-made explosive devices, a home-made handgun and four knives in the vehicle.

Later yesterday there were still blood stains on the sidewalk even after the area had been cleaned. The broken power pole stood beside three tree stumps, all damaged in the attack. No civilians were reported injured.

Guests at the Yiquan Hotel said they were woken by the explosions outside.

The 16 injured police officers were treated at the Kashi Prefectural People's Hospital. Four of them were in the hospital's intensive care unit last night while the other 12 were out of danger, the hospital said.

The hospital also treated the attacker who lost his arm. Surgeons amputated his damaged arm to save his life.

A team of medical experts from Urumqi, the regional capital, arrived at the hospital last night to help.