China

China vows Olympics safe

Article published on the 2008-08-05 Latest update 2008-08-05 07:36 TU

Beijing steps up security ahead of the Olympic Games.
(Photo : Reuters)

Just three days before the start of the Olympic Games in Beijing organisers have reassured athletes and spectators that the event will be safe. The assurance came after an attack in China's Xinjiang province that killed 16 policemen. The authorities are tightening security checks, resulting in long passenger queues to get through security checkpoints.

 

About 100,000 police and soldiers are on standby ahead of Friday's opening ceremony, and security has been stepped up in Tiananmen Square.

Police have also intensified road checks and increased personnel at government offices, schools and hospitals in the north-west Xinjiang province.

The International Olympic Committee said it believed the Chinese authorities had done everything possible "to ensure the security and safety of everyone at the Games".

The country's media has blamed separatist Muslim militants for the attack on Monday, where two men reportedly drove up to a border post in a rubbish truck and threw two grenades, before attacking the policemen with knives in Xinjiang.

Muslim Uighur separatists in the north-west of the country have waged a low-level campaign against Chinese rule for several decades.

Last month a group called the Turkestan Islamic Party claimed it had blown up buses in Shanghai and Yunnan, killing five people. China denied the explosions were terrorism.

Meanwhile Japan is set to protest after two journalists covering the Xinjiang attack said they were detained and beaten by police in Kashgar.