Chinese police have shot an ethnic Uighur man dead in the northern Shaanxi province's capital of Xian, police said on Wednesday. The man was shot while waiting in line at the train station while allegedly holding a brick in his hand.

Police fired at him after he reportedly did not listen to their warnings and "displayed aggressive behavior."

In a brief statement on its official microblog, the railway police in Xian said that at about 6 a.m. an Uighur man holding a brick "charged into" a line of people waiting to buy tickets.

"On duty police quickly got to the scene to stop him, and after repeated warnings were ignored opened fire and injured him," police said.

The man was transported to a hospital where he later died of his wounds, police said, adding the situation had returned to normal at the station. No further details were provided.

The Uighur are a mostly Muslim ethnic Turkic group that constitutes around 45 percent of the population of the western Xinjiang autonomous region.

The minority has accused China of carrying out repressive policies that restrain their religious, commercial and cultural activities.