Police kill ethnic Uighur man in train station drama

Chinese police say they fatally shot a man from the country’s Uighur ethnic group after he tried to attack travelers at a train station with a cement block, reviving memories of recent violence between the ethnic minority and China’s majority Han.
Railway police in the northern city of Xi’an said a police officer repeatedly warned the man before shooting him as he attacked travelers buying tickets at the city’s railway station at about 6 a.m. yesterday.
A brief message on the force’s microblog said the man died in hospital from his injuries and that normal order had been restored at the station.
No other details were given and it was not clear if anyone else had been injured in the incident.
Ethnic tensions between Muslim Uighurs and Han have periodically erupted into violence in recent years, leaving hundreds dead. Last year, a group of Uighurs armed with knives killed 31 people at a train station in the southwestern city of Kunming.
China has blamed the violence on terrorists inspired by global jihadi propaganda seeking to overthrow Chinese rule in their northwestern homeland of Xinjiang.
Uighur activists say an influx of Han migrants into Xinjiang has led to economic marginalization of the native population, and complain of heavy-­handed restrictions on religious and cultural observances. Yesterday’s attack came the day before the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. AP