Riots in China's Xinjiang region kill 27: Xinhua

BEIJING:Riots in China's ethnically divided Xinjiang region on Wednesday left 27 people dead, according to state media which said police opened fire on “knife-wielding mobs”.

It was the latest spasm of violence to hit the troubled western region, which is about twice the size of Turkey and is home to around nine million members of the mostly Muslim Uighur ethnic minority

Police shot at “mobs” who had attacked police stations, a local government building and a construction site, the Xinhua news agency said, citing local officials.

“Seventeen people had been killed... before police opened fire and shot dead 10 rioters,” it said.

Nine police or security guards and eight civilians were killed before police opened fire, the report said, adding that three other people were taken to hospital with injuries.

The clashes occurred early Wednesday in an area about 100 kilometres from the desert city of Turpan and about 250 kilometres from the regional capital Urumqi.

Many of Xinjiang's Uighur community complain of religious and cultural repression by Chinese authorities, and the region is regularly hit by unrest.

China reported that 21 people died in clashes between police and locals in the region in April, which the government said were caused by “terrorists”.

Chinese authorities have often blamed such violence in the region on “terrorists”, and a court in Xinjiang recently jailed nine people for “religious extremism”.

China said clashes in 2011 that killed 19 were organised by terrorists who trained in Pakistan and were part of a separatist movement seeking an independent state in Xinjiang.

Beijing has launched a stream of high-profile investment projects in an attempt to boost economic growth in the relatively poor region, which has rich reserves of coal and gas.

According to official figures, 46 per cent of Xinjiang's population are Uighur, while another 39 per cent are Han Chinese, after millions from the majority group moved there in recent decades in search of jobs.

China's foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said at a regular briefing that she was aware of reports, without giving further information.

Information about unrest in Xinjiang is tightly controlled by China's ruling Communist Party, and the government blocked Internet access across the region for several months following the clashes in 2009.

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