Explosion at China Xinjiang railway station

Security was tight outside the station following the explosion

An explosion has hit a railway station in China's western Xinjiang region, injuring a number of people, government officials and state media report.

The blast hit Urumqi's south railway station on Wednesday evening, officials said. The cause is not clear, but one report said at least 50 were hurt.

Xinjiang has experienced several violent clashes over the past months.

China's President Xi Jinping visited the region this week, and has promised to step up anti-terrorism efforts.

Verifying reports from the region is difficult because the flow of information out of Xinjiang is tightly controlled.

'Debris and suitcases'

"At around 19:10 on 30 April, an explosion happened at the passenger exit of Urumqi South Station when Train K453 from Chengdu to Urumqi arrived at the station, causing casualties," Xinjiang's local government news portal said.

Meanwhile, The Beijing News said at least 50 people had been injured, citing police officers.

Witnesses told Xinhua news agency that the explosion appeared to be centred around luggage left on the ground between a station exit and a bus stop.

Photos on social media, which could not be independently verified, appeared to show suitcases and debris strewn across a street after the blast.

People have been injured in the blast, with one report saying at least 50 were hurt

The explosion took place near a passenger exit, officials said

During his visit to Xinjiang, Xi Jinping vowed a "strike first" approach to security

However, several microblog posts and photos related to the explosion appeared to have been quickly deleted from Sina Weibo, China's largest microblog platform.

Luo Fuyong, a spokesman for the regional government, told Reuters news agency the situation was now "well under control".

"The wounded are receiving medical attention. Public security forces are on the scene dealing with it," he said.

The government was assessing casualties and the cause of the explosion, Mr Luo added.

The station was scheduled to launch three new intercity railway lines linking Urumqi with three other cities in Xinjiang on Thursday, Xinhua said.

The blast also came as President Xi Jinping completed a visit to Xinjiang - the first since he became president in 2012.

During the visit, Xinhua news agency said Mr Xi had vowed to deploy a "strike-first approach against terrorists in the region", and said the province's long-term stability was "vital to the whole country's reform, development and stability".

Xinjiang has witnessed serious ethnic tensions in recent years, the BBC's Martin Patience in Beijing reports.

The region is home to the country's Uighur Muslim minority, who have long complained of repression under Chinese rule - an accusation Beijing denies, our correspondent adds.

In March, Chinese officials blamed separatists from the Xinjiang region for a mass knife attack in Kunming, south-west China, which killed 29 and left more than 130 injured.

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Uighurs and Xinjiang

• Uighurs are ethnically Turkic Muslims
• They make up about 45% of the region's population; 40% are Han Chinese
• China re-established control in 1949 after crushing short-lived state of East Turkestan
• Since then, there has been large-scale immigration of Han Chinese
• Uighurs fear erosion of traditional culture