The number of people injured in ethnic violence in China’s Urumqi has risen to 1,680, state media reported on Sunday, quoting the regional government.
The figure was a marked increase from the 1,080 injuries reported on Tuesday by the official Xinhua news agency.
The report gave no new update on the death toll, which currently stands at 184 -- 137 of which were Han Chinese, 46 Uighur, and one of Hui ethnicity.
Of the injured, 216 were seriously hurt, 74 of whom were critical, Xinhua said.
Muslim Uighurs rampaged through the streets and attacked Han Chinese last on Sunday in Urumqi, the capital of China’s northwest Xinjiang region.
Thousands of Han Chinese then retaliated early in the week, arming themselves with makeshift weapons and marching through parts of Urumqi vowing vengeance against the Uighurs.
The mobs attacked some Uighurs, AFP witnessed, but it was unclear whether any died at the hands of the vigilantes.
Exiled Uighur leaders insist that security forces and Han mobs killed Uighurs after Sunday’s unrest. The updated injury count, however, only relates to Sunday’s violence.
Xinjiang’s eight million Uighurs, who make up nearly half the population of the region, have long complained of repression and discrimination under Chinese rule.
{{/usCountry}}Xinjiang’s eight million Uighurs, who make up nearly half the population of the region, have long complained of repression and discrimination under Chinese rule.
{{/usCountry}}Beijing, however, says its rule in Xinjiang is fair.