A group of exiled members of China's Uighur ethnic group confirmed an attack was carried out on Monday against a security station in Xinjiang, a region in the northwest of the nation.

Dilxat Raxit, a spokesperson for the European-based World Uighur Congress, said he had talked to several people in the border city of Kashgar who told him an attack had taken place at a station manned by China's People's Armed Police.

"The attack took place this morning in the city of Kashgar," he said after speaking to people inside the city by phone, although he could not confirm any more details about the method of attack including if it was by Uighurs.

Sixteen police in China's Muslim-majority northwest were killed in the suspected terrorist attack, state news agency Xinhua said, raising security fears four days before the Beijing Olympics.

He said however that there was increasing anger among the Turkic-speaking Uighur population about a pre-Olympic crackdown by Chinese authorities.

He said that security forces had arrested large numbers of Uighurs in the run-up to the Games as "they are considered to be terrorists in every part of the region".

"The police and soldiers just arrest them without any rules," he told AFP from Sweden, adding those arrested had suffered torture.

Security stations had been set up between villages and curfews had also been imposed, he said.

People's Armed Police are an elite part of China's security system, often called in to quell trouble across the country.

AFP