China clash leaves nearly 100 dead

About 100 civilians and assailants have been killed and injured in an attack by a gang armed with knives and axes in Xinjiang in China.

Armed policemen surround a knife-wielding attacker

About 100 civilians and assailants have been killed in an attack by a gang armed with knives. (AAP)

A clash in Xinjiang has left nearly 100 people dead or wounded, an exile group has said after what authorities called a "terror attack" on a police station and township.

Dozens of civilians and assailants were killed and injured in the attack by a gang armed with knives and axes, Chinese state media reported late on Tuesday.

"Police officers at the scene shot dead dozens of members of the mob," the official news agency Xinhua said.

It did not give a precise breakdown of the casualties from the incident on Monday, the day before Muslims in China marked the Eid festival, and information in Xinjiang is often difficult to verify independently.

Xinjiang's government web portal Tianshan on Wednesday described the violence as a "terror attack" that killed or wounded "several tens" of Uighur and Han.

The Han are China's largest ethnic group, whose members have migrated in large numbers to Xinjiang in recent decades.

Separately, prosecutors in Xinjiang on Wednesday brought charges of separatism against prominent Uighur academic Ilham Tohti detained earlier this year.

Detention of the outspoken economics professor in January prompted condemnation from the United States, European Union and international rights groups, including Amnesty International.

Washington on Wednesday renewed calls for his release and six students held with him.

Monday's violence came when "Uighurs rose up to resist China's extreme ruling policy and were met with armed repression resulting in dead and injured on both sides", Dilxat Raxit, a spokesman for exile group World Uyghur Congress said in an e-mail.

"Nearly 100 people were killed and wounded during the clash," he said, citing local Uighur sources.


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