Beijing - At least 156 people died and more than 800 were injured after ethnic minority Uighurs clashed with police and attacked members of China's Han majority in the far western region of Xinjiang, the official Xinhua news agency reported. Several hundred rioters were arrested following the violence, which began after a protest by Uighurs on Sunday in the regional capital of Urumqi.
They were demanding government action following the death of at least two Uighur factory workers and serious injury to dozens of others in the southern Chinese city of Shaoguan in late June.
The US-based World Uighur Congress quoted witnesses as saying scores of Uighurs were shot or beaten to death by police. The group claimed more than 800 deaths.
