Police shot and killed two ethnic Uygurs from Xinjiang who reportedly attacked them with knives late on Sunday in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, officers said on Monday.

Five Uygurs were found by police in Pingxiang, a city in Guangxi that borders Vietnam, but they allegedly resisted arrest after trying to cross the border illegally and fought officers with knives.

Two of them were shot dead and the other three were captured, Guangxi police said.