At least 140 people have been killed and over 800 injured during rioting in China's northwestern Xinjiang region. Police have arrested hundreds of people believed to have taken part in the violence that erupted during a protest by Muslim Uighurs.

Separatist Uighurs took to the streets in the regional capital Urumqi on Sunday. Eyewitnesses say they were carrying clubs and knives and that they vandalised shops and cars as they went.

The Chinese government claims the unrest was the work of extremist forces abroad, blaming Rebiya Kadeer – the Uighurs’ leader living in exile in the United States – for stoking tensions. 

But Uighur people accused Chinese security forces of opening fire on peaceful protestors, who were demonstrating against a fight at a factory in Southern China last month that left two Uighurs dead.

Alim Seytoff, General Secretary of the Uighur American Association, said: “These young Uighurs peacefully took to the streets, but more than 1,000 armed Chinese ppolice came out.

“What we were told is that they began to shoot indiscriminately.”

Uighurs have long complained off persecution by Chinese authorities and have an uneasy relationship with the majority Han people in Xinjiang, whom they accuse of dominating economic opportunities in the region.

Today Urumqi residents have been unable to access the Internet and described the city as "basically being under martial law."

Twitter and YouTube appeared to be blocked in China late on Monday afternoon, while leading Chinese search engines would not give results for  "Urumqi".

Listen to an interview with Beijing correspondent Marije Vlaskamp:

Photo: Urumqi mosque - Flickr Swamibu

Watch the video: Chinese State Television (YouTube/CCTV)