Scenes witnessed by Xinhua reporters

People began to gather in the Urumqi People's Square at 6:20 p.m. Sunday, and some started smashing and looting at about 8 p.m.

Xinhua reporters saw at about 10 p.m. at the crossing of Xinhua South Road and Tianchi Road that a police station was damaged. A group of young men, appearing to be from ethnic minorities, were chanting slogans and wielding wooden clubs, while several others were distributing hoes.

Then rioters destroyed barriers on the road and began chasing Han Chinese. Many bus windows were smashed. Some Han passengers were surrounded and beaten as soon as they got off the bus. Many were left with blood dripping down their faces.

Under a viaduct on the Tuanjie Road, Xinhua reporters saw a man who had been killed by rioters, and some steps away, a dead woman carrying a handbag lay on her stomach.

They also saw a big wine shop ablaze. In the blaze, window glass blew out, with a loud noise. Later they saw a taxi which had been stopped by rioters, and was now parked on the road. Inside was a Han driver.

He was covered in blood. Witnesses couldn't say for sure whether he was alive or dead.

A 36-year-old woman, whose face was covered by blooded, was wailing while running with her daughter and husband. Xinhua reporters sent her to a hospital.

When the armed police finally arrived and brought the riot under control, many onlookers, Hans and Uygurs alike, hurrahed.

Blood tainted street

Liu Jie is owner of a supermarket in the Houquan street, which lost more than 900,000 yuan in the riot.

In the street, five buses and four cars were burned and a driver was missing, said the woman in her 30s, who was still quivering and crying. Her hands and legs were black from dust and ashes.

"Rioters came at 7:50 p.m....altogether five groups," she said. Next door to the supermarket was a training center. Liu and more than 100 students from the center hid in the basement of the supermarket as rioters were overturning the shelves and smashing bottles.

Then someone set fire to the market, and those in the basement moved to the yard. "We were scared to death," she sobbed. But nobody dared to go out.

At about 2 a.m. Monday when they heard that police enter, they shouted "help" and were rescued.

When they came out, Liu saw many people lying in the street. "Blood was everywhere," she said.

Xinhua reporters saw in the street that wheels of two cars were still on fire as of Monday noon.

Several blocks away in the Zhongquan street, within 100 meters there were more than 20 blood stains and some bricks with blood and hair and something like skin on them.

Pointing at a big pool of blood, Ezmad Abla, vice director of the construction bureau of Tianshan district in Urumqi, said that there was so much blood that if it came from one man then maybe he was dead.

Blogger's photos

A few meters away from the blood was a burnt tree, under which a car was torched.

"The dead person could be the driver, or just a passer-by," he sighed.

A blogger, who claimed to have witnessed the tragedy, posted some photos on China.com.

One of the photos seemed to be the aftermath of the riot. In the dim lamp light, dozens of people were standing, while six or seven people, or bodies, were lying in the road.

On another, a middle-aged man in a white shirt was trying to stop blood bleeding from a young man, who lay on his back on the road with blood on his neck, on his white shirt and on the ground.

Still in anxiety

Although traffic control was lifted Monday morning in parts of Urumqi and debris has been cleared from the roads, residents were still trembling in fear.

In the streets most of the shops were still closed and many chose to stay at home rather than going to work.

"We don't feel safe," said an unnamed woman with a stock company.

Zhao in his late 30s worked late on Sunday to send the injured to hospital.

"Although the riot was over, I have unspeakable worry," he said.

His worry was partially from social order. "Is the riot really over?"

Also, he worried about how the government would deal with their losses, as his car was damaged by wooden and steel sticks yielded by rioters.

"Who will compensate us?" he asked.