Explosion in China's northwestern Xinjiang region, casualties unknown

Beijing: A number of people have been injured on Thursday in an explosion caused by a vehicle collision near a public park and open air market in the capital of the volatile northwestern region of Xinjiang that has seen a number of recent violent attacks, state media reported.

The official Xinhua News Agency said several people were rushed to hospital and flames and heavy smoke were seen at the scene, which was cordoned off.

No other details were given and it was not clear if anyone had been killed in the early morning blast in the city of Urumqi. A spokeswoman for the Xinjiang regional police department would only say that more information would be forthcoming.

Urumqi was the scene of a railway station bomb attack late last month that killed three people, including two attackers, and injured 79. Security in the city has been significantly tightened since the attack, which took place as Chinese leader Xi Jinping was concluding a visit to the region.

The station attack and other violence have been blamed on radicals from among the region’s native Turkic Uighur Muslim population seeking to overthrow Chinese rule in the region.

Tensions between Chinese and ethnic Uighurs (pronounced WEE’-gurs) in Xinjiang have been simmering for years, particularly since riots in 2009 in Urumqi left nearly 200 people dead, according to official figures.

Information about events in the area about 2,500 kilometers west of Beijing is tightly controlled.

AP