2014 Kunming attack

2014 Kunming attack
Part of the Xinjiang conflict
LocationKunming, Yunnan
Coordinates25°1′3″N 102°43′15″E / 25.01750°N 102.72083°E / 25.01750; 102.72083
Date1 March 2014
21:20 (China Standard Time)
TargetPassengers of Kunming railway station
Attack type
Knife attack
Deaths35 (including four perpetrators)
Injured143
PerpetratorsXinjiang separatists
No. of participants
8
MotiveIslamic extremism
Convicted4

On 1 March 2014, a group of 5 knife-wielding terrorists attacked passengers in the Kunming Railway Station in Kunming, Yunnan, China, killing 31 people, and wounding 143 others. The attackers pulled out long-bladed knives and stabbed and slashed passengers at random. Four assailants were shot to death by police on the spot and one injured perpetrator was captured. Police announced on 3 March that the six-man, two-woman group had been neutralized after the arrest of three remaining suspects.

No group claimed responsibility for the attack and no ties to any organization have been identified; in effect the group was a singular terror cell. Xinhua News Agency and the government of Kunming said that the attack had been linked to Sunni extremists which were a faction of Xinjiang separatists. Police said that they had confiscated a black, hand-painted East Turkestan flag at the scene, which is associated with the Uyghur separatists from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.