DHAKA: China sentenced eight people to death for their roles in two knife and bomb attacks this spring in the country’s violence-plagued western region of Xinjiang.

China state media reported on Monday, reports The Straits Times.

In April, a knife and bomb attack at a train station in the region’s capital of Urumqi killed three and injured 79.

In May, 39 people at a Urumqi market were killed when attackers hurled explosives out of the windows of two SUVs.

Five others were given a sentence of ‘suspended death’, which in China is usually tantamount to life in prison. Four others were given lesser prison sentences, state television said.

State television broadcast interviews with some of the defendants, who said they had been led astray and regretted their actions.

BDST: 1932 HRS, DEC 08, 2014