Scores killed in China protests（在线收听）

Scores killed in China protests

Violence in China's restive （不安的，不稳定的）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 （爆发）in the city of Urumqi on Sunday.

Xinhua news agency said police restored （恢复）order after demonstrators（示威者） attacked passers-by and set fire to vehicles.

The government has blamed separatist（分离主义者） Uighurs（维吾尔人的） based abroad for orchestrating attacks on majority ethnic Han Chinese.

Uighur exiles（放逐） said police had fired indiscriminately（无差别） on a peaceful protest. An overnight curfew（宵禁） was imposed.

'Foreign plot'

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, （指挥棒，接力棒）smashed cars and stores, and fought with security forces.

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

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（巧妙的策划） 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 （教唆，煽动）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 disrupting order will be detained and punished. (本文由在线英语听力室整理编辑)