April 2014 Ürümqi attack

April 2014 Ürümqi attack
A view of Ürümqi Railway Station
Location	Ürümqi, Xinjiang, China
Date	30 April 2014 7:10 pm (China Standard Time)
Target	Ürümqi Railway Station
Attack type	Suicide bombing; knife attack
Deaths	3 (including both perpetrators)
Non-fatal injuries	79
Perpetrators	Turkestan Islamic Party
Motive	Unclear

On 30 April 2014, a knife attack and bombing occurred in the Chinese city of Ürümqi, Xinjiang. The incident, a terrorist attack, left three people dead and seventy-nine others injured. The attack coincided with the conclusion of a visit by Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the Communist Party of China to the region.

At approximately 7:10 pm local time, a pair of assailants attacked passengers with knives and detonated explosives at the city's railway station. Police closed off all entrances to the station in the immediate aftermath of the attack, but it was reopened at 9 PM with increased security. It is not known how many individuals were involved in the attack, but two individuals are suspected. The Turkestan Islamic Party claimed the responsibility of the attack.

The attack occurred on the final day of Xi Jinping's four-day tour of the region. He had, only the day before, labelled Xinjiang as the "front line against terrorism" during a visit to the nearby city of Kashgar, and vowed to take a hardline against terrorism and violence attributed to Muslim Uyghur separatists, which claimed the lives of at least one hundred people over the past year. It is not known if Xi was still in the province when the attack took place. On the morning of the attack, he visited a mosque – located 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) away from the railway station – and urged religious leaders to foster harmony among the people in Xinjiang by giving followers a better understanding of religious teachings.

At 7:10 pm local time on 30 April 2014, a group of individuals used knives to attack passengers and detonated bombs at the exit of Ürümqi South Station. Originally, it was thought that the explosives came from luggage situated between the station and the bus stop outside, but the People's Daily stated that the attackers had "set off bombs tied on their bodies and died." The scope of the blast was also disputed. While one worker at a nearby hostel had reportedly mistaken the explosion for an earthquake, another eyewitness noted how the bomb appeared to be "home made, as the blast was not massive." Initially, the attack was said to have injured fifty people, but state news media revised the figures the next morning to three killed and seventy-nine injured.