China on Sunday blamed militants from the restive far western region of Xinjiang for an attack at a train station on the other side of the country by knife-wielding "terrorists" in which at least 33 died, including four of the assailants, who were shot dead.
The attack, which also left more than 130 people injured in the balmy southwestern city of Kunming late Saturday evening, marks a major escalation in the simmering unrest that has centered on Xinjiang, a heavily Muslim region strategically located on the borders of Central Asia.
It is the first time people from Xinjiang have been blamed for carrying out such a large-scale attack so far from their homeland, and follows an incident in Beijing's Tiananmen Square in October that shook the country's Communist leadership.