At least 27 killed in western China riots

USPA News - At least 27 people were killed after violent riots broke out in western China, local media reported Wednesday. The riots broke out early Wednesday morning at around 6 a.m. local time in the township of Shanshan County in Turpan Prefecture, which is located in China`s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

According to the Xinjiang`s regional committee of the Communist Party of China, violent mobs attacked the township`s police stations with knives, stabbing people and setting a number of police vehicles on fire, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported. At least 27 people were confirmed killed, when rioters reportedly killed seventeen, including nine security personnel and eight civilians. Police retaliated, opening fire and killing at least ten rioters, officials told the media outlet. A few others were also reported injured. Few details were immediately available, but tensions have been rising in the region since the recent influx of Han Chinese people in the last decades, causing frictions with the Uyghurs.