MOSCOW, May 22. /ITAR-TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed condolences to his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping over the deadly terrorist attacks on Thursday in Urumqi, the capital of China’s western volatile region of Xinjiang.

According to Xinhua news agency, 31 people were killed and over 90 wounded in a series of explosions that ripped through an open-air market in Urumqi at 7:50 a.m. local time, after two SUVs rammed into the crowd of shoppers. One of the vehicles blew up, while explosives were cast from the other one.

In his letter to the Chinese leader, Putin resolutely condemned the outrageous crime and expressed confidence that the organizers and perpetrators would be found and deservedly punished.

The Russian president also expressed his condolences to the families and relatives of those killed in the bombings and wished soonest recovery to all those wounded in the tragic incident.

China’s volatile Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region is populated by Uyghur Muslims and the titular Chinese nation of Han. Militants from the Islamic East Turkestan Movement stand for the region’s secession from China and were behind a series of terrorist acts in the region targeting law enforcers and civilians.