Three killed in riot in China's Xinjiang region

By Chris Buckley

BEIJING (Reuters) - Three people were killed in rioting that erupted in China's restive far west Xinjiang region on Sunday, when locals burned vehicles and blocked traffic in the regional capital Urumqi, the state news agency reported.

"The regional government did not say how many people were involved in the unrest, but said they illegally gathered in several downtown places and engaged in beating, smashing, looting and burning," said the official Xinhua news agency.

"The government sent police to disperse the crowd and arrested some rioters."

The dead were "three ordinary people of the Han ethnic group", Xinhua said. "More than 20 others were injured in the incident and many motor vehicles were burned."

The official reports did not specify the ethnicity of those involved in the unrest, or the reasons behind it, and calls to the Xinjiang region spokesperson's office and Urumqi police were not answered.

But a witness and other sources have told Reuters it involved members of the Uighur ethnic minority, many of whom resent the Chinese presence in the region, and the cultural and religious controls imposed by China's ruling Communist Party.

The eruption of anger in Xinjiang's tightly controlled capital brings into focus debate about the long-term viability of those controls.

"It started as a few hundred, and then there were easily over a thousand involved," said the visitor, who spoke on condition of anonymity.