Six terrorists armed with explosive devices were shot dead by police in China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. There were no police or civilian casualties, the local government said.

A suspect with an explosive device was noticed by local residents in a commercial district in Shule County, near the ancient Silk Road city of Kashgar. The witnesses called police, who opened fire after the would-be bomber charged at them with an ax and attempted to detonate the device, reports Xinjiang's state-run Tianshan news site.

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As police conducted a cleanup operation, another five attackers attempted to ignite explosive devices attached to their bodies.  They were killed by the police on the spot. A minibus with explosive devices was also spotted at the site.

There has been a rise in attacks and threats of violence in Xinjiang over the past year, with at least 200 people killed in a series of terrorist attacks, reports Shangahi Daily. The fundamentalist Muslim attackers have used everything from improvised explosive devices to knife attacks against public crowds.

The Chinese government has been cracking down in recent months on religious extremists, separatists and terrorists, with hundreds of arrests and around 50 executions and death sentences announced since June, according to Shanghai Daily.

On Saturday, Xinjiang's legislature voted to ban the wearing of burqas in public in Urumqi. It said the measure is "an effort to curb growing extremism that forced Uygur women to abandon their colorful traditional dress and wear black burqas."

And Last month, Xinjiang, banned the use of the Islamic face veil in public. The ban part of the ongoing government campaign against Islamic clothing and symbols in the Muslim region. Chinese authorities regard the wearing of veils as an act of disobedience.

In August, the northern China city of Karamay banned men wearing long bears from boarding public buses. 

TagsPolice in China Kill Six Bombers Thwarted Terror Attack, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, fundamentalist Muslims, Kashgar