BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Scores killed in China protests - 0 views
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Violence in China's restive western region of Xinjiang has left at least 140 people dead and more than 800 people injured, state media say.Several hundred people were also arrested after a protest turned violent in the city of Urumqi on Sunday.
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The protest was reportedly prompted by a deadly fight between Uighurs and Han Chinese in southern China last month. The BBC's Chris Hogg in Shanghai says that if the numbers of dead are to be believed - and state media say they may rise - this look like the bloodiest violence in China since Tiananmen Square 20 years ago.
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The Xinjiang government blamed separatist Uighurs based abroad for orchestrating attacks on ethnic Han Chinese. Eyewitnesses said the violence started on Sunday with a few hundred people, and grew to more than 1,000.
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The Uighurs were reportedly angry over an ethnic clash last month in the city of Shaoguan in southern Guangdong province. A man there was said to have posted a message on a local website claiming six boys from Xinjiang had "raped two innocent girls". Police said the false claim sparked a vicious brawl between Han and Uighur ethnic groups at a factory. Two Uighurs were killed and 118 people were injured.
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the Xinjiang government has blamed the latest unrest on businesswoman Rebiya Kadeer, the Uighurs' leader who is living in exile in the United States. "An initial investigation showed the violence was masterminded by the separatist World Uighur Congress led by Rebiya Kadeer," the government said in a statement, according to Xinhua. It said the violence had been "instigated and directed from abroad".