According to China state media, violence in the western region of Xinjiang has left at least 140 people dead and more than 800 injured. Officials say that protests by Muslim Uighurs in the city of Urumqi erupted into violence on Sunday, as demonstrators attacked passers-by and set fire to vehicles. Police restored order, and several hundred people have been placed under arrest. Uighur groups blame police for violent suppression of a peaceful protest.
This is the bloodiest suppresion of protest in China since the Tiananmen Square massacre twenty years ago. The death toll is expected to rise.
Uighurs are ethnically Turkic Muslims who make up about 8 million of the 20 million population of Xinjiang. China re-established control of the region in 1949 after crushing the short-lived state of East Turkestan. Since then, large scale immigration of ethnic Han Chinese has left the Uighurs fearful of losing their traditional culture. Since 1991, there have been sporadic incidents of violence in the region.
-- from BBC News
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