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15 seized over syringe attacks in Xinjiang

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-09-03 06:48

URUMQI: Police have seized 15 people for stabbing members of the public with hypodermic syringe needles in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, a senior local official said Wednesday.

Of the 15, four were officially arrested and prosecuted, said Zhu Hailun, head of the political and legal affairs commission of the Communist Party of China (CPC) committee in Xinjiang.

The court would pronounce judgment on the four in the near future, Zhu said.

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Members of nine ethnic groups including Han Chinese, Uygur, Hui, Kazak and Mongolian had reported stabbing incidents to the police, said Zhu.

Police investigations are under way.

Yin Yulin, deputy director of the region's health department, said nobody had been infected or poisoned from being stabbed so far.