URUMQI, China (Reuters) – A crowd confronted anti-riot police in China’s western city of Urumqi on Friday, when hundreds of Han Chinese tried to push past security barriers into an ethnic Uighur neighborhood.

The confrontation came a day after thousands of Han Chinese took to the streets in Urumqi, regional capital of Xinjiang province, protesting that they were the targets of mysterious attacks with syringes and that authorities had been too slow in punishing Uighur rioters involved in violence on July 5.

The flare-up showed the region remains volatile despite a security crackdown.

“They have no right to block off the road like this. These Uighurs have been stabbing us with needles,” one of the men trying to push through the barriers, sealing off a Uighur neighborhood, told Reuters.

“We need to take care of the problem.”

Hundreds of police then moved in to disperse the crowd, which scattered into nearby streets.

Uighurs are a Muslim Turkic people who have long formed the area’s majority.

(Reporting by Lucy Hornby; Writing by Chris Buckley; Editing by Robert Birsel)

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