Scores killed in China protests

Violence in China's restive western region of Xinjiang has left at least 140 people dead and more than 800 people injured, state media say.

Several hundred people have also been arrested after the violence erupted in the city of Urumqi on Sunday.

Xinhua news agency said police restored order after demonstrators attacked passers-by and set fire to vehicles.

The protest was reportedly prompted by a fight between Uighurs and Han Chinese in southern China last month.

'Foreign plot'

Uighur exiles said police had fired indiscriminately on a peaceful protest in Urumqi.

The Xinjiang government blamed separatist Uighurs based abroad for orchestrating attacks on majority ethnic Han Chinese.

Eyewitnesses said the violence started on Sunday with a few hundred people, and grew to more than 1,000.

Xinhua says the protesters carried knives, bricks and batons, smashed cars and stores, and fought with security forces.

An overnight curfew was imposed.

Uighur groups insisted a peaceful protest had become victim to state violence.

The Uighurs were reportedly angry over an ethnic clash last month in the city of Shaoguan in southern Guangdong province.

CHINA'S UIGHURS Ethnically Turkic Muslims, mainly in Xinjiang Sporadic violence in Xinjiang since 1991 Uighurs worried about Chinese immigration and erosion of traditional culture

A man there was said to have posted a message on a local website claiming six boys from Xinjiang had "raped two innocent girls".

Police said the false claim sparked a vicious brawl between Han and Uighur ethnic groups at a factory. Two Uighurs were killed and 118 people were injured.

However, the Xinjiang government has blamed the latest unrest on businesswoman Rebiya Kadeer, the Uighurs' leader who is living in exile in the United States.

"An initial investigation showed the violence was masterminded by the separatist World Uighur Congress led by Rebiya Kadeer," the government said in a statement, according to Xinhua.

It said the violence had been "instigated and directed from abroad".

The BBC's Quentin Sommerville in China says Xinjiang, a mainly Muslim area, has been a source of tension for many years.

Some of its Uighur population of about eight million, want to break away from China, and its majority Han Chinese population.

The authorities say police are securing order across the region and anyone creating a disturbance will be detained and punished.