Boisterous crowds in this riot-hit western China city turned up at mosques despite announcements that Friday prayers were canceled due to the recent ethnic violence, forcing officials to let them in.

Some of the mosques were in areas of Urumqi that saw street fighting earlier this week, after angry demonstrations by minority Muslim Uighurs sparked a crackdown by security forces and clashes with the Han Chinese majority that left at least 156 dead.

They included the White Mosque, one of the most popular places to worship in the large Uighur neighborhood of Er Dao Qiao. About 100 men argued with guards, demanding they be allowed in for prayers, a focal point of the week for Muslims.

A Uighur policeman guarding the mosque, who would not give his name, said: "We decided to open the mosque because so many people had gathered. We did not want an incident."

On Liberation Road near the White Mosque, a group of about 40 Uighur men and women began to march, shouting, crying and pumping their fists in the air as they walked.

Madina Ahtam, a woman in a multicolored headscarf, begged foreign reporters to stay with them as they walked.

"Every Uighur people are afraid," she said in English. "Do you understand? We are afraid. ... The problem? Police."

A group of 10 police in bulletproof vests and helmets and armed with batons and stun guns blocked their march within minutes, followed shortly by several dozen more police who surrounded the group and forced them to squat on the sidewalk. Police pushed journalists away from the area.

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