China rioting death toll reaches 184

URUMQI, China, July 11 (UPI) -- The death toll from last week's separatist violence in far western China has reached 184 with more than 1,000 injured, officials say.

The deaths and injured make Sunday's rioting in Xinjiang between ethnic Muslim Uighurs and Han Chinese one of the worst explosions of violence in the country's modern history, the Los Angeles Times reported Saturday. The newspaper said Beijing claims 137 of the dead were Han Chinese, 46 were Uighur and one was part of the Hui Muslim minority group.

Snapshots police have provided of the dead indicate many of the Han Chinese victims had gashes or cuts on their heads, while some Uighur victims apparently died of bullet wounds, which the Times said backed charges by Uighurs that security forces fired into crowds of protesters.

Uighur leaders say Chinese officials overreacted to what was essentially a peaceful protest by the Muslim minority over government policies they say are repressive.

Rebiya Kadeer of the World Uighur Congress in Washington told the Times that unconfirmed reports indicate the number of slain Uighurs could actually be in the thousands, while Beijing has reportedly accused Kadeer of inciting the violence -- a charge she denies.