Ethnic violence in China leaves 140 dead
Firemen on the streets of Urumqi after ethnic violence in the city. Photograph: Xinhua/Reuters
Ethnic violence in China’s restive Xinjiang province has left more than 140 people dead and hundreds injured, Chinese authorities said today.
Clashes broke out between Muslim Uighurs and Han Chinese in Urumqi, the western region’s capital, last night. Officials said 828 people were injured and hundreds had been arrested.
Today, thousands of armed paramilitary and riot police were blocking off the area where the violence began. Burned-out buildings were still smoulderingand shop windows had been smashed.
One Han shopkeeper said: "Last night was very dangerous. We feel safer now because there are so many police."
The official Xinhua news agency said 140 people died and the death toll was still climbing.
On an official tour of the damaged area around the city’s grand bazaar, hundreds of damaged vehicles, including a fire engine, could be seen while Uighur residents shopped in the market.
A car dealer, Guo Jianxing, said a large crowd of Uighur men had arrived at his showroom last night and caused damage worth hundreds of thousands of yuan, as well as injuring one of his workers. Blackened vehicles, one upside down, filled the forecourt and the showroom windows had either been smashed or had broken in the heat of the blaze that consumed the building.
Protesters smashed up buses, threw stones and assaulted passersby, according to another witness. Armed riot police moved in to restore order with teargas, armoured vehicles and road blocks, according to a foreign student in Xinjiang. Mobile phone networks appeared to be working only sporadically.
Shaky amateur video posted on the internet showed large crowds blocking several of the main streets in the city as people watched from rooftops. Other videos had been removed by internet censors.
"I saw a Uighur man kicking a Han or Hui woman," said a student who wished to remain anonymous. "In the hospital, I saw a Han man arrive with lots of blood over his shirt, but the Uighur staff paid him no attention."
"My family didn’t dare go out," said Yang Yu, a Beijing-based journalist, whose family live in Urumqi. "They live on the 14th floor but they could still hear the people shouting and the emergency vehicles."
The protests were said to have started when several thousand people rallied in the grand bazaar to protest at the death of two Uighur migrants, and injuries suffered by hundreds of others, during an ethnic conflict between workers in a factory in Guangdong, southern China, last month.
Muslim Uighurs are the indigenous ethnic majority of Xinjiang. The region has seen an influx of Han Chinese seeking to profit from its oil and gas resources, which has stirred up resentment.