Policemen inspect the scene after a knife attack happened at a railway station in Guangzhou city, south Chinas Guangdong province, 6 May 2014. [Photo/icpress.cn]

At least six people were injured, including one seriously, after police said several young people used fruit knives to attack pedestrians at Guangzhou Railway Station on May 6.

Police shot and injured one male suspect while another suspect escaped, according to the Guangzhou bureau of public security. Police did not give an exact number of suspects who committed the stabbings.

The wounded passers-by were sent to the General Hospital of Guangzhou Military Command for treatment, the bureau said.

Yin Chunlin, a doctor at the hospital, said three of the injured victims immediately had surgery upon arrival at the hospital.

The stabbings took place at around 11:30 am in the square of Guangzhou Railway Station, one of the three busiest stations on the Chinese mainland.

Sun Bao, who saw the attacks take place, said he saw a man in his 20s lying on the ground after his head was stabbed and bleeding profusely. Sun said two women and two other men lay wounded about 10 meters away.

"The wound (on the man's head) was more than 15 cm in length," Sun said. "The injured man spoke a Henan dialect."

Ni Zhiquan, who also witnessed the stabbings, said a foreigner in his 50s was also injured.

"I saw the white man, who had grey hair, cover his right arm, which was bleeding, and run away," said Ni, who is from Sichuan province.

Ni said he saw police fire three times, injuring one of the suspects in the leg.

The Guangzhou bureau of public security did not confirm whether a foreigner was injured by press time.

Police arrived shortly after the stabbings and cordoned off the area. The arrival platform at the railway station was closed off after the incident.

According to the Guangzhou Railway Station, normal operations were resumed at about 1:30 pm when the blockade was lifted. An investigation is ongoing, police said.

Hua Chunying, spokeswoman from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said the Chinese government will introduce concrete measures to maintain social stability and protect people's lives and properties.

"No matter what their purposes are, those who use violence to harm the innocent will be punished," Hua said at a regular news briefing on the afternoon of May 6.

The stabbings are the third fatal incident at a railway station on the Chinese mainland in recent months. Three people were killed and 79 were injured, including four seriously, when rioters attacked passengers and set off bombs at a railway station in Urumqi, capital of the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, on April 30.

Twenty-nine were killed and 143 were injured when a group of separatist terrorists from Xinjiang stabbed passengers at Kunming Railway Station, capital of Yunnan province, on the night of March 1.