Assailants armed with grenades and knives killed 16 police in a restive western region of China on Monday, state media said, in just the sort of violence Beijing had hoped to avoid four days before the Olympics.

The attack, which took place around 4,000 km from the capital in the old Silk Road city of Kashgar, was a reminder of internal tensions in China, especially in its ethnically mixed and largely Muslim west.

A spokesman for the Beijing Games Organising Committee said he was sure athletes and spectators would be safe.

“China has focused on strengthening security and protection around Olympic venues and at the Olympics Village, so Beijing is already prepared to respond to any threat,” Sun Weide told news agency Xinhua.

A 100,000-strong security force is on standby ahead of Friday’s opening ceremony and there is a strong sense of excitement in the air.

The attack in the Muslim-populated Xinjiang region raised the security temperature ahead of the Games, as authorities had repeatedly warned that militants there were planning to sabotage the Games.

It also follows deadly bomb blasts in the southwestern city of Kunming last month and in Shanghai in May, killing a total of five people, which a Muslim militant group with ties to Xinjiang claimed responsibility for.

The Chinese organisers of the Games said they were checking for any link between Monday’s attack and the Olympics, but immediately sought to reassure the world about security arrangements for the event.

“We have strengthened security work in all Olympic venues and in the Olympic village. We are well-prepared in security for the upcoming Games,” Beijing Olympic organising committee spokesman Sun Weide said.

... contd.