2013 Tiananmen Square attack

2013 Tiananmen Square car attack
Part of Xinjiang Conflict
The car crashed outside of the Gate of Heavenly Peace on Tiananmen Square
Location	Beijing, China
Date	28 October 2013
Attack type	Car attack (suspected suicide bombing)
Deaths	5 (including three attackers)
Non-fatal injuries	38
Perpetrators	East Turkestan Islamic Movement
Motive	Extremist Islamic beliefs

On 28 October 2013, a car crashed in Tiananmen Square, Beijing, China, in what police described as a terrorist suicide attack. Five people died in the incident; three inside the vehicle and two others nearby. Police identified the driver as Usmen Hasan and the two passengers as his wife, Gulkiz Gini, and his mother, Kuwanhan Reyim. An additional 38 people were injured.

Chinese police described it as a "major incident" and as the first terrorist attack in Beijing's recent history. The East Turkestan Islamic Movement, or Turkistan Islamic Party, claimed responsibility and warned of future attacks.

A 4x4 vehicle crashed into a crowd and burst into flames near the portrait of Mao Zedong at Tiananmen Square. All three people inside the car were killed as well as two tourists in the square–one Filipino woman and the other a male Chinese citizen from Guangdong province. Thirty-eight people were injured. Witnesses at the scene said that the car involved in the incident was honking its horn at pedestrians.

Chinese police later issued a notice to Beijing hotels seeking information about two people from China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. The notice described a vehicle and four Xinjiang number plates. They also instructed hotels to be aware of "suspicious" guests.

The police notice also requested hotels to report all guests who had registered since 1 October and the cars they had driven. The request was issued "In order to prevent the suspects and vehicles from committing more crimes".

The suspects have names of Uyghurs, a Turkic Muslim minority group, and come from their native Xinjiang, a region in which there is ongoing conflict. One suspect is from the town of Lukun in Shanshan County, the location of an incident in which 30 people died in an attack in June. Five suspects were taken into police custody and said they knew Hasan. Three of the suspects, identified as Huseyin Guxur, Yusup Wherniyas and Yusup Ehmet, were convicted of masterminding the attack, and executed in August 2014.