China: 13 assailants shot dead in police station attack in Yecheng County

Police officers have killed 13 assailants in an attack on a police station in China’s restive western province of Xinjiang, officials say.

The attackers drove a car into the station and set off explosives on Saturday morning, the local government said on its website.

Three police suffered minor injuries but no civilians were hurt, it added.

The Chinese authorities blame Muslim Uighurs from Xinjiang for an increasing number of attacks in the province.

“On the morning of June 21, a group of thugs drove a car into a police building in Yecheng County, Kashgar province and detonated explosives,” the local government website said.

“Police shot dead the 13 attackers,” it reported. It provided no further details.

Verifying reports from the Xinjiang region is difficult because access for journalists is restricted and the flow of information is tightly controlled.

The authorities have tightened security in Xinjiang in recent months.

On Monday, China executed 13 people in Xinjiang for what it called “terrorist attacks”.