China has said five suicide bombers who killed 31 people in the autonomous Xinjiang region were probably influenced by terrorist groups outside the country.<br /><br />Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said the bombers had been radicalised by extremist Internet sites.<br /><br />Thursday’s attack is the deadliest in the troubled region to date and the second suicide bombing in the region’s capital Urumqi in just over three weeks.<br /><br />The attackers drove two vehicles into a market and threw explosives out of their windows.<br /><br />Many of the nearly 100 wounded were elderly shoppers, according to witnesses.<br /><br />China’s minister of public security went to the site of the attack and later visited injured victims in hospital.<br /><br />China has blamed a series of recent attacks on separatist militants.<br /><br />Many rights groups blame the unrest on government policies, including curbs on the culture and language of Uighurs, a Turkic ethnic minority people that have long complained about official discrimination in favour of the majority Chinese ethnic Han population.<br /><br />Residents said the market where the attack occured was frequented by Han customers, though many of the vendors were Uighers.<br /><br />Nobody has claimed responsibility for the Urumqi attack.
