By RIA Novoati,
Beijing : The death toll in ethnic clashes in China’s Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region a week ago may climb to 258, China Daily reported on Monday.
Chinese authorities said the official death toll from July 5 riots in Urumqi, capital of China’s northwest region, has increased to 184 and another 939 people have been hospitalized, with 74 of them in a critical condition.
The violence started when a group of protesters took to the streets to demand an investigation into the death of two ethnic Uighurs during a fight with Han Chinese workers in late June.
Uighurs fought with Han Chinese in inter-ethnic clashes that led to running battles between the groups throughout last week.
The riots forced Chinese President Hu Jintao to cut short his visit to Italy, where he was to have attended the G8 summit. China’s Communist Party has promised to “severely punish” the organizers of the riots.
Although order was restored in the region on Sunday, authorities fear the violence could resume, the newspaper said.
China’s senior security official, Zhou Yongkang, earlier called for a “steel wall” of security to “win the tough war of maintaining Xinjiang’s stability.”