Police shot and killed five persons, whom they said were criminal suspects violently resisting arrest, in Urumqi Tuesday.

Police in the capital of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region opened fire after an officer was stabbed by a member of a 15-person group they were trying to nab, said sources with the Urumqi public security bureau.

Two other injured suspects were hospitalized while eight were detained.

According to the sources, three of the suspects broke into a beauty salon armed with knives and injured the owner.

(Xinhua News Agency July 9, 2008)