BBC… Seven people have been killed and 14 injured in a bomb blast in China’s Xinjiang region.
The explosion happened in Aksu city in the west of the remote western region.
A local government spokeswoman, Hou Hanmin, said a Uighur [Muslim] man drove a three-wheeled vehicle carrying an explosive device into a crowd.
The man was arrested at the scene and investigations were ongoing, Ms Hou said.
Four of those hurt had suffered serious injuries, she said.
Last year deadly ethnic riots erupted in Xinjiang after tensions flared between the Muslim Uighur minority and the Han Chinese.
There have also been a number of blasts in Xinjiang in the past, which the government blames on Uighur [Muslim] separatists.
Speaking on Thursday before the blast occurred, Xinjiang Governor Nur Bekri told journalists that China faced a “long and fierce and very complicated struggle” in Xinjiang.
“Separatism in Xinjiang has a very long history, it was there in the past, it is still here now and it will continue in the future,” AP news agency quoted him as saying.
Chinese authorities say a small group of militants are behind attacks in Xinjiang.
But Uighur [Muslim] activists and human rights groups accuse Beijing of using the issue to crack down on Uighur dissidents, who have complained that waves of Han Chinese migrants are undermining their culture.