'We've been exhausted for days and nights': Police recruits experience tougher training under anti-terror drive

Police officers and cadets in Xinjiang are feeling the strain amid more patrols and intensive weapons drills to combat a spate of violent attacks, according to a student training at a police college in the region.

"I and all my classmates are exhausted after days and nights of training," the cadet, from the Xinjiang Police College in Urumqi , told the South China Morning Post.

The increased training has put all cadets and frontline officers under pressure, he said. The student officer, who asked not to be named, said many of his senior classmates who were now patrolling the streets of Urumqi had complained that they "had not seen families and friends for a long while".

"All students have had to pass stricter requirements this year. I haven't slept well for many nights," he said.

The Ministry of Public Security posted several photographs on social media on May 25 showing anti-terrorism officers in Urumqi squatting in an alley while eating packed meals and taking turns to nap on the ground. The government has blamed a series of bomb and knife attacks in Xinjiang and elsewhere in the country on Muslim ethnic-Uygur separatists from the region.

Thirty-nine people died at an open-air market in Urumqi last month when attackers drove into crowds and threw explosives. Four assailants were also killed.

A bomb and knife attack at the end of April at the main railway station in Urumqi killed one bystander and wounded 79 people.