Police in northwest China shot and killed a man holding six saleswomen hostage at knifepoint in a grocery store robbery early on Thursday morning.

All of the women were released without injury after the three-hour ordeal in Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region. But police said one woman was hospitalised for psychological trauma.

Xiong Dali, political instructor with the patrol police detachment of the Urumqi security bureau, said the young man entered the downtown store on Xingfu Road posing as a shopper as the store readied to close at 12:30 am.