China Shocking Video Shows Axe Attack Xinjiang Gaming Hall Hotan
The assailants are seen standing behind their victims in footage captured by a security camera. YouTube/CCTV

A dramatic video, showing the moment three attackers armed with axes and knives stormed a gaming hall in China's western region of Xinjiang, has emerged.

In security footage aired by state broadcaster CCTV, the three assailants can be seen as they calmly stand watching their victims playing the traditional table game of mahjong.

Suddenly the assailants pull out the weapons they had concealed in their clothing and start hitting the players.

One of the attackers, in a dark shirt, draws an axe from his belt and violently wields it against a man's neck and back, before frantically attacking other people with the weapon.

A second aggressor takes out a long knife from his trousers and similarly starts delivering blows to the sitting players who, after the initial shock, try to defend themselves, hitting back with chairs and other furniture.

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The third assailant was not captured by the security camera inside the game room but can be seen in footage showing the attackers as they are chased down the city streets after they were driven out of the building.

The video ends with security forces and a mob of locals, wielding makeshift batons, closing in on the attackers.

Xinhua news agency reported that two of the assailants were killed and the third one wounded and captured. Four civilians were wounded.

The motive for the attacks, which happened in Hotan city, in the region's south, at the end of last week, aren't known and authorities have said an investigation is underway.

Xinjiang has been beset by a number of similar violent attacks in recent months which Beijing has blamed on separatist Uighur Muslim groups.

Earlier this week, 13 alleged extremists were executed over a series of crimes including organizing, leading and participating in terrorism groups, arson, murder and illegal manufacturing, storage and transporting of explosives.

The same day, a Chinese court sentenced three people to death for planning a deadly car ramming in Beijing's Tiananmen Square, last October, which killed five people.