Sixteen Chinese police officers were killed in the old Silk Route city of Kashgar on Monday in an attack believed to have been carried out by Muslim separatists armed with explosives and knives, the Financial Times reported. The assault, in which an additional 16 police officers were injured, is the most serious to hit western China’s Xinjiang region in years and came just four days before the Olympics opening ceremony. According to state media, at 8am two men drove a truck into a group of police jogging in the street and then attacked them with knives. The men also threw explosives into a nearby police yard. They were later arrested. Xinjiang shares borders with a number of Asian countries and many members of the region’s Muslim Uighur population resent Chinese control.