| Up to 156 people have been killed and more than 800 injured during violent ethnic riots in China's western Xinjiang region.
Thousands of people, mostly Muslim Uighurs, took to the streets of the region's capital, Urumqi, where some rioters smashed vehicles and set them alight.
Others overturned barricades, attacked bystanders and clashed with police, the official Xinhua news agency reported.
The riots followed peaceful protests from Uighurs who were demanding an investigation into a ethnic fight at a southern Chinese factory last month, Xinhua said.
Two Uighur employees were killed during the clash with Han Chinese workers.
Xinhua reported that the death is still climbing.
State television showed rioters throwing stones at police and overturning a police car, and smoke billowing from burning vehicles.
A local news station later broadcast graphic photos of people who were killed in the riots, with the faces of some victims beaten into a bloody pulp.
Ten victims were shown, an equal mix of men and women, several of whom had their faces drenched in blood.
"I personally saw several Han people being stabbed. Many people on buses were scared witless," said Zhang Wanxin, a Urumqi resident.
Wu Nong, director of the news office of the Xinjiang provincial government, said more than 260 vehicles were attacked or set on fire and 203 houses damaged.
Several hundred people were reported to have been arrested for involvement in the violence, while armed security forces surged into Urumqi as authorities tried to stem further protests.
The Xinjiang regional government blamed Rebiya Kadeer, the Uighur leader who is living in exile in the US, for orchestrating the unrest.
However, Uighurs - who have for a long time felt persecuted by Chinese rule in Xinjiang - accused security forces of over-reacting to peaceful protests and firing indiscriminately at demonstrators. |
