It quotes Chinese state media which says that rioters killed 10 people, while two of the rioters were shot by police.

The Xinhua news agency  gives no detail as to what triggered the violence.

Security has been high in the north-western province since riots in 2009 in the capital Urumqi between the Muslim Uighurs, who are the largest ethnic group, and Han Chinese migrants.

Nearly 200 people were killed in that unrest, most of them Han, according to officials.

Today’s violence took place in a market in Yecheng county, according to Xinhua, which says police are still hunting some of the rioters.

Almost half of Xinjiang’s residents are Uighurs, Turkic-speaking Muslims with cultural and ethnic links to Central Asia.

Many complain that large-scale migration of Han Chinese workers from the east has cost them jobs and is eroding their culture.

China has invested heavily in Xinjiang and the region’s rich oil and gas deposits are vital to its booming economy.

Uighurs say they are suffering discrimination and marginalisation, and this has been behind anti-Han and separatist sentiment in Xinjiang since the 1990s.

Further violence broke out in July 2011 and left 32 people dead.

A hostage-taking incident in December led to the death of seven kidnappers – part of a “terror gang,” according to Chinese state media.

China claims it faces an organised terrorist threat from radical Muslims in Xinjiang, but Uighur activists say citizens are angry at Beijing’s heavy-handed rule in the region.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-17195886