BEIJING, July 6 (RIA Novosti) - The death toll in Sunday's riots in China's Muslim Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region has grown to 140, Xinhua said on Monday.
Riots started in the regional capital of Urumqi on Sunday when a group of protesters demanded an investigation into the death of two ethnic Uighurs killed in a fight with Han Chinese workers at a toy factory in late June.
Xinhua said that protesters from the Uighur Muslim ethnic minority group began attacking ethnic Han pedestrians, burning vehicles and attacking buses with batons and rocks.
The news agency said citing a spokesman for the regional government a total of 57 died in the riots, while the others died later in hospital. The spokesman said the death toll could increase.
The report also said order in the region was partially restored, but the situation was still "tense."
Chinese authorities said the unrest had been "instigated" by forces outside of China.
"It was instigated and directed from abroad, and carried out by outlaws in the country," an official statement said on Monday.
The AFP news agency quoted Alim Seytoff, general secretary of the Uighur American Association in Washington, as saying that according to his information, police had begun shooting "indiscriminately" at protesting crowds.
Xinjiang's eight million Uighurs have complained of political, cultural and religious persecution by Beijing and there have been repeated calls by Uighurs for independence.
