Urumqi, China:
A curfew has been imposed on the city of Urumqi in western China for a second night after ethnic riots on Sunday which left 156 people dead.
A heavy security presence has restored an uneasy calm to the capital of Xinjiang province. Riot police fired tear gas to break up groups of Han Chinese armed with clubs, who said they were angry at violence carried out by ethnic Muslim Uighurs. President Hu Jintao has flown home from the G8 summit in Italy over the unrest.
The Chinese government imposed a curfew in the capital of the Xinjiang region on Tuesday after mobs of Han Chinese with meat cleavers and clubs roamed the streets looking for Muslim Uighurs who had earlier beaten up people in the country's worst ethnic violence in decades.
Officials say the curfew is aimed at stemming communal violence after a riot on Sunday that killed at least 156 people.
Protests have erupted across Urumqi since Sunday as tensions continue to simmer.
On Tuesday, members of the Uighur ethnic group attacked people near Urumqi's railway station.
Meanwhile, for much of the afternoon, a mob of one thousand, mostly young Han Chinese holding cleavers and clubs and chanting "Defend the Country" tore through streets trying to get to a Uighur neighbourhood until they were repulsed by police firing tear gas.
Elsewhere in the city, about 200 people, mostly women in traditional headscarves, took to the streets in another neighbourhood, wailing for the release of their sons and husbands in the crackdown and confronting lines of paramilitary police.
Foreign reporters on a government-run tour of the riot's aftermath witnessed the protest and without their presence, the incident might have gone unreported given the media controls.
In some neighbourhoods, Han Chinese - China's majority ethnic group - armed themselves with pieces of lumber and shovels to defend themselves.
People bought up bottled water out of fear that the water might be poisoned.
The outbursts happened despite swarms of riot police enforcing a dragnet that state media said led to the arrest of more than 1,400 participants in Sunday's riot, the worst ethnic violence in the often tense region in decades.
Trying to control the message, the government has slowed mobile phone and Internet services, blocked Twitter - whose servers are overseas - and censored Chinese social networking and news sites and accused Uighurs living in exile of inciting Sunday's riot.
State media coverage, however, carried graphic footage and pictures of the unrest - showing mainly Han Chinese victims and stoking the anger.
At a government organised news conference in Urumqi on Tuesday, Xinjiang's Islamic Association condemned the riots as "the actions of thugs".
"The people that carried them out do not represent good Uighur people, nor good Muslims," the association's vice president, Abdurekep said.
The violence is a further embarrassment for a Chinese leadership preparing for the 60th anniversary of communist rule in October and calling for the creation of a "harmonious society" to celebrate.
Years of rapid development have failed to smooth over the ethnic fault lines in Xinjiang, where the Uighurs (pronounced WEE-gers) have watched growing numbers of Han Chinese move in.
Wang Lequan, Xinjiang's Communist Party secretary, declared the curfew in all but name, imposing traffic restrictions and ordering people off the streets from 9 pm to 8 am on Wednesday "to avoid further chaos."
Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang blamed the violence on Rebiya Kadeer, the US-exiled Uighur leader.
Evidence had been found against her, Qin said, but refused to give details.
Sunday's riot started as a peaceful demonstration by Uighurs over a deadly fight at a factory in eastern China between Han Chinese and Uighur workers. It then spiralled out of control, as mainly Uighur groups beat people and set fire to vehicles and shops belonging to Han Chinese.
A heavy security presence has restored an uneasy calm to the capital of Xinjiang province. Riot police fired tear gas to break up groups of Han Chinese armed with clubs, who said they were angry at violence carried out by ethnic Muslim Uighurs. President Hu Jintao has flown home from the G8 summit in Italy over the unrest.
The Chinese government imposed a curfew in the capital of the Xinjiang region on Tuesday after mobs of Han Chinese with meat cleavers and clubs roamed the streets looking for Muslim Uighurs who had earlier beaten up people in the country's worst ethnic violence in decades.
Officials say the curfew is aimed at stemming communal violence after a riot on Sunday that killed at least 156 people.
Protests have erupted across Urumqi since Sunday as tensions continue to simmer.
On Tuesday, members of the Uighur ethnic group attacked people near Urumqi's railway station.
Meanwhile, for much of the afternoon, a mob of one thousand, mostly young Han Chinese holding cleavers and clubs and chanting "Defend the Country" tore through streets trying to get to a Uighur neighbourhood until they were repulsed by police firing tear gas.
Elsewhere in the city, about 200 people, mostly women in traditional headscarves, took to the streets in another neighbourhood, wailing for the release of their sons and husbands in the crackdown and confronting lines of paramilitary police.
Foreign reporters on a government-run tour of the riot's aftermath witnessed the protest and without their presence, the incident might have gone unreported given the media controls.
In some neighbourhoods, Han Chinese - China's majority ethnic group - armed themselves with pieces of lumber and shovels to defend themselves.
People bought up bottled water out of fear that the water might be poisoned.
The outbursts happened despite swarms of riot police enforcing a dragnet that state media said led to the arrest of more than 1,400 participants in Sunday's riot, the worst ethnic violence in the often tense region in decades.
Trying to control the message, the government has slowed mobile phone and Internet services, blocked Twitter - whose servers are overseas - and censored Chinese social networking and news sites and accused Uighurs living in exile of inciting Sunday's riot.
State media coverage, however, carried graphic footage and pictures of the unrest - showing mainly Han Chinese victims and stoking the anger.
At a government organised news conference in Urumqi on Tuesday, Xinjiang's Islamic Association condemned the riots as "the actions of thugs".
"The people that carried them out do not represent good Uighur people, nor good Muslims," the association's vice president, Abdurekep said.
The violence is a further embarrassment for a Chinese leadership preparing for the 60th anniversary of communist rule in October and calling for the creation of a "harmonious society" to celebrate.
Years of rapid development have failed to smooth over the ethnic fault lines in Xinjiang, where the Uighurs (pronounced WEE-gers) have watched growing numbers of Han Chinese move in.
Wang Lequan, Xinjiang's Communist Party secretary, declared the curfew in all but name, imposing traffic restrictions and ordering people off the streets from 9 pm to 8 am on Wednesday "to avoid further chaos."
Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang blamed the violence on Rebiya Kadeer, the US-exiled Uighur leader.
Evidence had been found against her, Qin said, but refused to give details.
Sunday's riot started as a peaceful demonstration by Uighurs over a deadly fight at a factory in eastern China between Han Chinese and Uighur workers. It then spiralled out of control, as mainly Uighur groups beat people and set fire to vehicles and shops belonging to Han Chinese.
