Bomb in Urumqi

This item appears on page 17 of the June 2014 issue.

In Urumqi, capital of China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, three people were killed and 79 were injured when an explosion and a knife attack occurred at the same time at a rail station on April 30. The explosion was centered in a pile of luggage near the station’s exit and a bus stop. 

Xinjiang is home to Uyghurs, ethnically Turkic people who are largely Muslim. A separatist movement in the region has been blamed for terrorist activities in the past.