BEIJING — Knife-wielding assailants attacked people at a train station in southwestern China on Saturday in what authorities called a terrorist attack, and police fatally shot five of the assailants, leaving 28 people dead and 113 injured, state media said.
China’s official Xinhua News Agency did not identify who might have been responsible for the late-evening attack at the Kunming Railway Station in Yunnan province but said authorities considered it to be “an organized, premeditated violent terrorist attack.”
A Xinhua reporter in Kunming said several suspects had been “controlled” while police continued their investigation.
Authorities said five suspects were shot dead but that their identities had not yet been confirmed, Xinhua reported. Overall, 28 people were confirmed dead and 113 injured, it said.
A dozen bodies could be seen at Kunming No. 1 People’s Hospital, where more than 60 victims had been taken by midnight, Xinhua reporters said. A doctor said medical personnel were still not sure of the exact number of casualties.
Yang Haifei, a Yunnan province resident being treated at the hospital for chest and back wounds, told Xinhua he was buying a ticket when he saw a group of people, most dressed in black, rush into the station and start attacking.
“I saw a person come straight at me with a long knife, and I ran away with everyone,” he told Xinhua.
He said slower people ended up severely injured.
“They just fell on the ground,” he said.
The Kunming rail station is one of the largest in southwest China.