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.
More tear gas was used to break up a group of more than 100 young protestors who gathered later in the afternoon, while several other "small-scale confrontations" took place Friday, the government's official Xinhua news agency reported from Urumqi.
Many of the 100-strong group held national flags and sang China's national anthem, urging the government to "strictly punish mobsters and restore peace and tranquility," the agency said.
A worker at a restaurant close to Nanhu Square told the German Press Agency
