Blast hits capital of China's western Xinjiang region - Xinhua

It was not clear yet whether there were casualties in the blast, which took place in a park in Urumqi at around 8am local time (1.00 a.m. BST), Xinhua said.

China has blamed a series of knife and bomb attacks in recent months on separatist militants from Xinjiang, which is the traditional home of the ethnic Uighur people. Xinjiang has been plagued by violence for years, but rights activists and exile groups say the government's own heavy handed policies in the region have sowed the seeds of unrest.

(Reporting By Megha Rajagopalan and Shao Xiaoyi; Editing by Jason Subler)