Beijing - At least 140 people died and more than 800 were injured after Uighurs clashed with police and attacked members of China's Han majority in the far western region of Xinjiang, the regional government said Monday. Police arrested several hundred rioters following the violence, which began after a protest by Uighurs on Sunday in the regional capital of Urumqi, the official Xinhua news agency quoted a Xinjiang police spokesman as saying.
The police spokesman said the death toll had passed 140 and was "still climbing," with 816 injuries recorded.
At least 10 "key figures who fanned the unrest" were under arrest and police were searching for 90 others accused of organizing the rioting, the agency quoted him as saying.
A Chinese worker at a hotel near People's Square, in the centre of Urumqi close to some of the rioting, said he heard intermittent gunfire on Sunday and saw armoured cars deployed to quell the rioting.
A Uighur rights group said some protestors were shot dead during the"violent suppression" of the rioting by police, while the hotel worker said he also heard an explosion at a nearby hospital.
Internet and outgoing telephone services were suspended as police continued patrolling the streets Monday, the hotel worker told the German Press Agency
