By WILLIAM FOREMAN Associated Press Writer
URUMQI, China July 6, 2009 (AP) The Associated Press
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Protesters throw rocks at police on a street in Urumqi, capital of China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region Sunday, July 5, 2009. More than 140 have been killed and over 800 injured in distrubances in the most Westerly of China'sprovinces.
(AP Photo/CCTV via APTN)Violent street battles killed at least 140 people and injured 828 others in the deadliest ethnic unrest to hit China's western Xinjiang region in decades, and officials said Monday the death toll was expected to rise.
Police sealed off streets in parts of the provincial capital, Urumqi, after discord between ethnic Muslim Uighur people and China's Han majority erupted into riots.
Witnesses reported a new protest Monday in a second city, Kashgar.
Columns of paramilitary police in green camouflage uniforms and flak vests marched Monday around Urumqi's main bazaar — a largely Uighur neighborhood — carrying batons, long bamboo poles and slingshots. Mobile phone service was blocked, and Internet links were also cut or slowed down.
Rioters on Sunday overturned barricades, attacking vehicles and houses, and clashed violently with police in Urumqi, according to media and witness accounts. State television aired footage showing protesters attacking and kicking people on the ground. Other people, who appeared to be Han Chinese, sat dazed with blood pouring down their faces.
From: http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=8008472
