KUNMING — 2014 · Major Tragedy

The Kunming Railway Station Attack

SolvedSources: ALast updated: 14 October 2026

On the evening of 1 March 2014 a group armed with long knives attacked passengers at random in the waiting hall and square of the railway station in Kunming, capital of China's Yunnan province. In the roughly 25-minute attack 31 civilians were killed and 143 injured. Police shot dead four attackers at the scene and captured one wounded. The Chinese government blamed separatists from Xinjiang and called it a terrorist attack. Of four defendants tried at the Kunming Intermediate People's Court, three were sentenced to death and executed on 24 March 2015; the surviving attacker, who was pregnant at the time, received life imprisonment. The attack marked a turning point in the hardening of China's security policies.

Date: 2014
Place: Yunnan, China, Kunming, CN
Category: Major Tragedy
Case Status: Solved
Coordinates: 25.0190, 102.7220 ↗

Timeline of Events

1 March 2014Knife-wielding attackers struck passengers at Kunming station; 31 people died.
1 March 2014Police shot dead four attackers and captured one.

September 2014Four defendants were tried in Kunming; three received death sentences and one life imprisonment.
24 March 2015The three sentenced to death were executed.

Sources

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