1989–2006 2007–present On the morning of 22 May 2014, two sport utility vehicles (SUVs) carrying five assailants were driven into a busy street market in Ürümqi, the capital of China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.

On 30 April 2014, two suicide bombings killed three and injured 79,[6] leaving a level of high security in the region and the train station where the attack occurred "like a fortress", with men bearing arms at ticket gates, multiple police trucks in the city, and checkpoints.

[4] A cordon was set up to keep onlookers back, but pictures depicting a large black smoke cloud were posted on Weibo,[3] and images showed bodies lying on the floor and destroyed market stalls.

[1] Chinese Communist Party General Secretary Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang responded to the incident by promising "decisive actions against terrorist attacks", and stated that a "strike-first" strategy would be implemented.

They also called on government officials in the region to do everything they could to ensure that the injured were assisted, the crime investigated and the perpetrators punished severely.