Beijing - Chinese police used tear gas to disperse crowds Friday in the far western city of Urumqi as hundreds of people took to the streets to protest the authorities' failure to stop a spate of apparent ethnic-based attacks with needles. State media said armed police used the tear gas to disperse more than 1,000 local residents who were trying to force their way into Nanhu Square in the city centre early Friday afternoon.
Another group of more than 100 young protestors gathered on another street later in the afternoon, the government's official Xinhua news agency reported from Urumqi.
A worker at a restaurant close to Nanhu Square told the German Press Agency
