WHERE THERE'S LOVE

When the panic-stricken crowd ran for their lives, Zhang Dexing showed an unusual calmness and bravery. He called together a team of volunteers who used clubs and fire extinguishers to fight the knife attackers.

They also helped out two unarmed policemen, who were fighting the attackers with bare hands.

Fearing the terrorists might break into the station building and take a heavier toll, Zhang and two other volunteers stood guard at the entrance, putting their own lives at risk.

Zhang does not even have a proper job. He is a scalper, who earns a living by buying train tickets and selling them on for a profit -- deals that are done under the table as he faces heavy fines if detected.

The volunteers he mobilized included his fellow ticket scalpers and a few passengers.

A native of Kunming, Zhang said he was seized by rage at the brutal killings. "I cannot stand letting the killers get away with it -- I live near the railway station and my family could be at risk if any one of them is at large."

The volunteers also helped in the rescue work. They helped carry the dead and injured into ambulances. "As the area was congested, some ambulances arrived late. The last victim was sent to hospital at least 40 minutes after the attack," said Zhang.

Kunming's No. 1 People's Hospital received dozens of injured. Xinhua reporters saw huge packs of milk piling up in a corner of its emergency ward. On top of the pile was a piece of red paper typed with large black Chinese characters reading, "May the injured recover soon. With compliments from Kunming citizens."

Xinhua reporters were denied access into wards where victims were being treated. In sharp contrast to the widespread horror, panic and fury on Saturday night, most medical workers and patients who were seen walking along the corridors were silent and even numb.

At the city's No. 3 People's Hospital, a lanky teenager with a bandaged arm and bloodstains on the back of his shirt tried to stay away from Xinhua's camera lens, and refused to say a word. His blank expression suggested he was struggling to wake up from the nightmare.

"Saturday's killing lasted less than 30 minutes, but who knows for how long the trauma will haunt us?" asked a Kunming resident who only gave his family name as Wang.

There were queues outside the city's 11 blood donor centers and blood collecting buses. A medical worker at one of the centers said they collected at least five times as much blood than on a normal day.

"Why did such a tragedy happen in Kunming?" asked Yao Dan, a young woman who was in a 20-meter queue waiting to donate blood. "I live near the railway station, so my friends all sent me text messages last night to ask me if I was safe. I told them I was okay, but my heart was bleeding."

Additional reporting by Xinhua correspondents Li Meng and Li Huaiyan