Street vendor stabs fellow Uygur to death in Changsha, kills 4 passers-by

Five people were hacked to death yesterday following a dispute between two Uygur vendors in Changsha, capital of Hunan province, state media reported.

One of the vendors was among those killed. The other vendor, the suspected assailant, fled the scene but was later shot dead by police, Xinhua reported.

The incident comes amid heightened ethnic tensions after knife-wielding assailants suspected of being Uygur separatists from Xinjiang stabbed 29 people to death at Kunming's main railway station on March 1.

Citing Changsha authorities, Xinhua said a knife fight erupted between two vendors, Hebir Turdi and Memet Abla, at about 10.15am at the Shahuqiao Market in Wujialing, in the north of the city. Abla was hacked to death by Turdi, who stabbed four passers-by as he fled the scene. Two victims died at the scene, and the other two in hospital.

The Shanghai-based Oriental Morning Post, citing a hardware-shop owner at the market, reported that the suspect continued to hack Abla "dozens of times" after the latter fell to the ground. "He was crazy, and hacked whoever he saw [afterwards]," the shop owner said.