Six people were injured after a knife-wielding man attacked passengers waiting at a Chinese railway station on Tuesday in the latest in a series of assaults at train stations.
Police arrived at the Guangzhou Railway Station in southern China on Tuesday morning to see passengers being attacked, the Associated Press reported. Police verbally warned the suspect to stop, but open fired when the suspect did not comply. The suspect was shot, wounded and taken to a hospital for treatment, said a statement from police from the Guangdong provincial capital of Guangzhou.
The six wounded were also treated at a hospital.
Police at first thought more than one suspect was involved. But further investigation concluded there was only one assailant.
Tuesday's attack is the third one to be carried out on civilians at a train station in just over two months, the AP reported. The assailants are usually disgruntled members of society or those who are mentally ill. Others say the attacks were carried out by religious extremists from far-western China.
In March, five men and women armed with knives killed 29 people in an attack at a Kunming city railway station in southwestern China, the AP reported.
Security measures were increased across the country after the initial attacks, yet more are still occurring. The motive for the latest assault is not yet known, the AP reported.
The attackers are believed to be extremists belonging to the western Turkic Uighur Muslims, who are slowly carrying out an insurgency against Beijing, the AP reported.
Authorities believe the Uighurs carried out the knife attack in March. They are also thought to be behind a suicide bombing last week at a train station in the northwest Xinjiang region that killed 3 people and injured another 79.
Chinese President Xi Jinping called for "decisive actions" against terrorism after the bombing, the AP reported.
