Xinjiang authorities said two assailants carried out a suicide attack on Wednesday evening at Urumqi’s main railway station. The attack left one bystander dead and 79 people injured.

The assailants, one of whom was identified as Sedirdin Sawut, 39, from Aksu in southern Xinjiang, were influenced by “extreme” religious thoughts, Xinhua reported.

The assailants “set off bombs tied on their bodies and died” after launching frenzied knife attacks, People’s Daily reported through its official microblog, citing a police investigation.

“This is a bomb explosion case of a violent terrorist nature,” Xinhua reported, but it did not say whether the attackers were related to overseas groups.

The attack coincided with the end of a four-day inspection tour to the Uygur region by President Xi Jinping.

… Rohan Gunaratna of the Singapore-based International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research, said: “The attack is a defiance of [Beijing’s] rule. They want to show to the Chinese president that they are able to attack.”