People across China commemorate 'Mukden Incident'

Thursday marks the 83rd anniversary of the September 18 Incident, or the Mukden Incident, which was the beginning of Japan's invasion of North-east China in 1931.

Sirens sounded across China and various activities were held to commemorate the day. In northeast China's Liaoning Province, the occasion was marked by a bell-ringing ceremony. And in east China's Anhui Province, dozens of documents were put on display. The documents detailed the war crimes of Japanese soldiers and the history of Chinese people's resistance against the Japanese army.

On September 18th, 1931, Japanese troops blew up a section of railway under their control near the city of Shenyang in north-east China. Japan then accused Chinese troops of sabotage and used the incident as a pretext to launch an attack on the Chinese military. They bombarded the barracks of Chinese troops near Shenyang that same evening, starting a large-scale armed invasion of north-east China.