Heads roll in China over Xinjiang unrest

China sacked two top officials in restive Xinjiang yesterday as it moved to quell public uproar over syringe attacks in the region's capital Urumqi that sparked deadly protests.

State-run Xinhua news agency said Urumqi's Communist Party chief Li Zhi was removed along with Xinjiang's top police official Liu Yao Hua in the wake of mass protests by mostly ethnic Han that left five people dead.

The demonstrations began last Wednesday with angry citizens demanding the government stop a spate of mysterious syringe attacks, just two months after riots by the city's Muslim Uighurs left nearly 200 people dead, mostly Han.

Security remained tight yesterday as signs of normality slowly returned to the city of 1.8 million after three days of demonstrations that peaked on Thursday when tens of thousands of people poured onto the streets.

Five people died in the protests last Thursday, officials said, as anger over hundreds of needle attacks since mid-August boiled over, with many of the victims blaming Uighurs.