At least 28 people were stabbed to death and more than a hundred others left injured when knife-wielding assailants stormed into the Kunming train station in Yunnan province in the southwestern region of China late Saturday evening. 

Beijing blamed Xinjiang militants for the deadly attack and President Xi Jinping has ordered an all-out effort to "crack down on violent terrorist activities in all forms, safeguard social stability and guarantee the safety of people's lives and property," according to Xinhua news agency.

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Witnesses described the train station as a scene of panic and confusion where everyone tried to run for cover as the assailants, men wearing black, began stabbing people on the chest and back with long knives.

"People just fell on the ground," one witness said.

Responding police shot dead four of the assailants and arrested one, state media said, adding that five others escaped and remain at large.

The Kunming station attack is the latest in a spate of violence that the Chinese government believes to be a result of unrest that has plagued the western region of Xinjiang, located on the Central Asian border and home to Muslim Uighur people.

Xinjiang's unrest had killed more than a hundred people in the past year.

"Evidence at the crime scene showed that the Kunming Railway Station terrorist attack was carried out by Xinjiang separatist forces," the Kunming government said.