Attackers drove a car into a government building in China's unruly far western region of Xinjiang on Wednesday and set off an explosive device, killing one person, the regional government said. All four of the attackers were shot dead.

Hundreds of people have been killed in recent years in resource-rich Xinjiang, on the borders of central Asia, in violence between the Muslim Uighur people who call the region home and ethnic majority Han Chinese.

The government has blamed the unrest on Islamist militants, though rights groups and exiles say anger at Chinese controls on the religion and culture of Uighurs is more to blame for the unrest. China denies any repression in Xinjiang.