140 dead as ethnic riots erupt in China
Updated on 06 July 2009
Lindsey Hilsum reports on ethnic violence that has killed 140 and injured more than 800, and which poses the biggest threat to the Chinese government's authority since last year's Tibet uprising.
The government said demonstrators from China's Uighur Muslim minority had gone on the rampage, killing ethnic Han Chinese.
But Uighur exiles blamed "heavy-handed" Chinese security forces who they say killed peaceful demonstrators.
The violence took place in Urumqi, the capital of the far western province of Xinjiang, 2,000 miles from Bejing.
The fact that many of the ethnic Uighur people in Xinjiang, like the Tibetans to the south, want to separate from China, poses a huge threat to the central government in Beijing.
The accompanying report contains distressing images.
