The official news agency Xinhua reported that a terrorist plot is suspected as a cause of the attact against a police border patrol station in north-western China's Xinjiang region in which two attackers killed 16 police and injured 16.

The police sources said that the attackers drove a tip lorry into a team of police officers who were jogging outside the police division in Kashgar, also known as Kashi.

The attackers got out of the lorry after the vehicle veered to hit a roadside wire pole. The men threw two grenades toward the barracks, causing an explosion, and then hacked at the officers with knives, Xinhua said.

Fourteen police officers were killed on the spot while two others died on the way to hospital. "Police suspected a terrorist plot behind the raid," the report said.

It said the regional public security department had received clues suggesting that the East Turkistan Islamic Movement planned to carry out terrorist attacks from the beginning of the month to the start of the Beijing Olympic Games on Friday.

The two attackers were arrested, police were quoted as saying. One of the men suffered a leg injury in the raid.

Officials could not be reached for comment, and staff at local government offices refused to comment.

The attack happened four days before the 2008 Olympic Games are scheduled to open with security being a top concern.

China's Xinjiang region is populated by ethnic Uighur Muslims, some of whom favor having an independent state. The region has been the scene of violent riots and attacks against the majority Han Chinese in the past decade.

Recently, China accused a pro-independence Uighur group of plotting terrorist attacks to try to sabotage the Olympics.