China executes 3 over knife attack at Kunming train station

A fork used by the police to handle attackers is left on the ground outside a railway station after an attack by knife-wielding men left some 31 people dead in Kunming. File photo

A court in south-western China has executed three men convicted of masterminding a knife attack in 2014 that killed 31 people outside a railway station in Kunming.

A notice from the Kunming City Intermediate People’s Court said Iskandar Ehet, Turgun Tohtunyaz and Hasayn Muhammad were put to death on Tuesday.

The executions came after China’s Supreme Court upheld their convictions for the crimes of murder and organising and leading a terrorist organisation.

Five knife-ielding assailants hacked 31 people to death and injured 141 on March 1, 2014. Four of the assailants were shot dead at the scene and one captured and sentenced to life in prison.