KASHGAR, XINJIANG - Two men were executed in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region yesterday for last August's terrorist attack on border police that left 17 dead and 15 injured.

The Intermediate People's Court of Kashgar prefecture announced the death penalties, approved by the Supreme People's Court, before an audience of about 4,000 local officials and residents at a stadium in Kashgar city prior to the executions.

Abdurahman Azat, 34, and Kurbanjan Hemit, 29, both locals of Kashgar, were executed elsewhere, out of public sight, but details are unknown.

They had been convicted of intentional homicide and illegally producing guns, ammunition and explosives, according to verdicts announced by the Supreme People's Court on Dec 17 last year.

The Kashgar court found the two carried out the terrorist attack on Aug 4 to "sabotage" the Beijing Olympic Games that began on Aug 8, 2008.

The court heard they bought materials to make explosives, two guns and ammunition in February and March, and chose to attack border police in a town of Kashgar, near China's border with Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Armed with guns, explosives, knives and axes, they drove a heavy truck that they had stolen to the site around 6 am.

Two hours later, Abdurahman Azat drove the truck toward a team of more than 70 police - who were on a regular morning exercise - killing 15 and injuring 13.

When the truck overturned he detonated the explosives, killing another person.

At the same time, Kurbanjan Hemit threw explosives at the gate of the police station and wielded a knife at the police who had been run over by the truck. He killed one policeman and injured two others.

The two were arrested at the scene.