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Blast hits during Chinese President’s visit to region

CNN, 30 April 2014

(CNN) — An explosion rocked a train station Wednesday in China’s restive northwestern region as President Xi Jinping finished a visit there, the nation’s state news agency reported, citing authorities.

The blast occurred in Urumqi, the capital of northwest China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, Xinhua news agency reported. Ambulances and police rushed to the train station, and details about casualties are unclear, Xinhua said.

Frequent outbreaks of violence have beset Xinjiang, a resource-rich region where the arrival of waves of Han Chinese people over the decades has fueled sectarian tensions with the Uyghurs, a Turkic-speaking, predominantly Muslim ethnic group.

Authorities have not released the cause of the explosion, which occurred around 7 p.m. at the exit of the south railway station of Urumqi.

Police evacuated people in the square in front of the station, deployed armed officers and cordoned off entrances to the station, where train services had been suspended.

During his stop, Xi stressed the importance of “long-term stability” in the region as “vital to the whole country’s reform, development and stability; to the country’s unity, ethnic harmony and national security as well as to the great revival of Chinese nation.”

Speaking to local officials, the President called for national unity and opposed separatism. He said China will use a “strike-first” strategy against militants in the region and forge policies to promote ethnic harmony.

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/04/30/world/asia/china-xinjiang-explosion/