Chinese state media says that 140 people have been killed and more than 800 hurt in violence in the country's western Xinjiang region. The official Xinhua News Agency did not immediately give any other details Monday on the number of deaths, but said the death toll "was still climbing."

Nearly 1,000 protesters from a Muslim ethnic group rioted in China's far west, overturning barricades, attacking bystanders and clashing with police in violence that killed at least four people, including a policeman, state media and witnesses said.

Protesters, mostly from the Uighur ethnic group, set dozens of cars on fire and attacked buses in several hours of violence in the Xinjiang province city of Urumqi. The violence appeared to subside as the police and military presence intensified into the night, according to participants and witnesses. Tensions between Uighurs and the majority Han Chinese are never far from the surface in Xinjiang, China's vast Central Asian buffer province, where militant Uighurs have waged sporadic, violent separatist campaign. The overwhelming majority of Urumqi's 2.3 million people are Han Chinese.

State television aired footage that appeared to show protesters attacking and kicking people on the ground. Other people sat dazed with blood pouring down their faces. Mobile phone service provided by at least one company was cut Monday to stop people from organizing further action in Xinjiang. The protest started Sunday with demonstrators demanding an investigation into a fight between Uighurs and Han Chinese workers at a southern China factory last month. Accounts differed over what happened next in Xinjiang's capital of Urumqi, but the violence seemed to have started when a crowd of protesters - who started out peaceful - refused to disperse.

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