Video Shows Brutal Axe Attack in China

A graphic video showing several axe-wielding men attacking a group in a gaming hall emerged from China today.

The security camera video, released by Chinese state media CCTV, shows three men with knives and axes enter a gaming hall where people are calmly playing Mahjong. A man pulls out an axe from his pants and starts hitting one of the bystanders. Soon after, two others pull out long knives and begin hacking at the rest of the people.

Video courtesy of Youtube/CCTV News

Some of the victims try to get up and run away from the assailants, while others attempt to defend themselves with chairs and tables. Four people were reportedly injured.

A crowd chases the attackers out of the gaming hall as security forces quickly appear. According to China’s Xinhua news agency, two of the attackers were killed and the third was captured.

The attack took place in Hotan city in Xinjiang province, which has been the site of several violent attacks by China’s Uighur Muslim separatist minority group in recent months. Although the exact motives and identities of the attackers are currently unknown, this is not the first time a similar knife attack has occurred in Xinjiang.

In March, a group of Uighur separatists killed 29 people and injured 130 in an attack with machetes and knives in a train station in Xinjiang that became known as “China’s 9/11.”

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Uighurs are a Muslim minority concentrated in the far western corner of China, and have experienced discriminatory and oppressive policies under the Chinese government for decades.

The Chinese government has engaged in a severe crackdown on Uighur separatists in response to the recent spate of violence in Xinjiang. On Monday, officials announced they had executed 13 people in Xinjiang on the charges of terrorism, arson, murder, and other violent offenses.

"You must have the most effective means to deal with violent terrorists. Sweat more in peacetime to bleed less in wartime," China’s president Xi Jinping said in response to the recent sentencing.

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