2015 Aksu colliery attack | |
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Part of the Xinjiang conflict | |
Location | Baicheng County, Aksu Prefecture, Xinjiang, China |
Coordinates | 41°10′N 80°15′E / 41.167°N 80.250°E |
Date | 18 September 2015 |
Target | Aksu coal mine workers |
Attack type | Knife attack |
Deaths | 16 (per Xinjiang Daily)[1][2] 50 (Per Radio Free Asia)[3] |
Injured | 18 (per Xinjiang Daily)[1] 50 (Per Radio Free Asia)[3] |
Perpetrators | Xinjiang separatists |
No. of participants | 29 |
The 2015 Aksu colliery attack , also known as the Baicheng incident[4] took place on 18 September 2015, when a group of separatists, suspected to be Uyghurs,[5] attacked workers and security guards at a coal mine in Baicheng County in Aksu, Xinjiang, leaving at least 16 dead and 18 wounded according to government sources, with other estimates reaching as high as 50 dead and 50 wounded. When local police arrived at the scene, the attackers rammed the police's vehicles with stolen trucks before fleeing into the mountains. The majority of the victims of the attack were members of the Han ethnic group.[6]