31 dead, 94 people injured in attack on Chinese market

BEIJING

Around 30 people died and almost 100 others were injured early Thursday when two cars ploughed into a market in China's troubled Xinjiang province, and then set off explosives.

According to a report by Xinhua - China's national news agency - the two off-road vehicles broke through roadside fences in a downtown area of the region's capital Urumqi and plowed into shoppers.

Witnesses said that explosives were thrown from the vehicles, before the cars themselves then blew up. A local business owner told Xinhua that he heard a dozen loud bangs.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has pledged to severely punish "terrorists" involved in the incident and spare no effort in maintaining stability.

In an early morning statement, the regional government called the attack "a serious violent terrorist incident of a particularly vile nature."

It was not immediately clear who was responsible, however China's government has previously blamed extremists from Xinjiang's native Turkic Uighur Muslim ethnic group for such incidents in the region.

At midday, 31 people were understood to have died in the incident and 94 people had been injured, although many are believed to have been hospitalized with serious injuries.

The death toll was the highest in the region since 2009 riots in the regional capital killed almost 200 people. 

Last month, an Urumqi train station was also rocked by a bomb attack that killed three people and injured 79. 

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