Incident in Xi'an Railway Station comes one day before start of Ramadan
Railway police in Xi'an, capital of Northwest China's Shaanxi Province fatally shot Wednesday a brick-wielding man who charged at bystanders at the local train station, local authorities announced.
An earlier Sina Weibo post issued by the railway police said that the man was an ethnic Uyghur but was soon deleted. More details about the man's identity have not been released.
Police spotted the man charging at a line of people waiting to buy tickets in the lobby of Xi'an Railway Station Wednesday morning, according to a police statement.
"The man was shot and injured after he ignored repeated police warnings. He died in spite of emergency treatment," read the railway police statement.
A photo posted by China Central Television on its official Weibo account showed the bleeding man laying on the ground with several police officers standing nearby. A photo posted by news site thepaper.cn also showed what appeared to be a bullet hole in a police car parked at the scene.
The police have not disclosed if anyone was injured in the incident. Local railway police were unavailable for comment as of press time.
The shooting came one day before the start of this year's Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Some netizens compared this incident with an earlier police shooting in Qing'an, Heilongjiang Province, where a man was shot dead at a railway station after attacking a police officer. Some questioned whether it was necessary to shoot the man and demanded the authorities release surveillance footage of the incident.
Meanwhile, others argued that it is important that the police send a stern warning to anyone attempting to cause social troubles.
"It should be noted that police are authorized to take protective measures in an emergency. Failing to act is undoubtedly inappropriate for it may cause more harm. In certain extreme circumstances concerning public security, police can even fire their weapons without warning," Wang Hongwei, an associate professor at the Renmin University of China, told the Global Times.
Wang suggested that police be equipped with non-lethal weapons to stun attackers. "But adequate training - both in terms of the law and the necessary skills - should be carried out to guarantee the appropriate use of weapons when needed."
China has strengthened the police presence at railway stations after several stations suffered terror attacks.
A group of knife-wielding assailants attacked civilians at a railway station in Kunming, Yunnan Province on March 1, 2014, causing 29 deaths and injuring another 143. Terrorists attacked passengers with knives and caused an explosion at a railway station in Urumqi in Xinjiang on April 30, 2014, killing three people and injuring 79 others.
