Seven killed and 14 left injured in bomb attack

A BOMB attack killed seven people and wounded 14 yesterday in China's far west region of Xinjiang, an area beset by ethnic conflict and separatist violence.

The target of the attack wasn't known, although an overseas activist for the region's native Uighur ethnic group said the victims included members of the security forces.

The blast went off after a man drove a three-wheeled vehicle laden with explosives into a crowd of people in a suburb in Aksu city in southwestern Xinjiang, said Hou Hanmin, a spokeswoman for the Xinjiang government, in a hastily arranged news conference.

"Police say it was an intentional act because the suspect was carrying explosive devices."

She said the suspect, who was injured, was captured immediately. Some of the wounded were in serious condition. "The casualties are innocent civilians of different ethnic minority backgrounds," she said.

Xinjiang has been the site of ethnic conflict in recent years, including riots last summer when long-standing tensions between the Turkic Muslim Uighurs and China's majority Han flared into open violence in Urumqi.

The government said 197 people were killed, while hundreds of people were arrested and about two dozen sentenced to death. Many other Uighurs remain unaccounted for and are believed to be in custody.

While the riots marked China's worst ethnic violence in decades, Xinjiang has seen a series of bombings and other violence, including attacks on security forces around the time of the Beijing Olympics in 2008.

The government also says it has broken up several groups intent on carrying out attacks, including a bomb-making operation near Aksu in 2009.