BEIJING: China is expected to put more than 200 people on trial this week for alleged involvement in deadly unrest in the country's northwest Muslim-majority region of Xinjiang, state media said Monday.

The trials will take place in the Intermediate People's Court in Urumqi, the regional capital shaken by violence in early July that cost the lives of at least 197, the China Daily reported, citing unnamed officials.

The more than 200 defendants have all been formally arrested, marking a steep increase from the 83 formal arrests so far made public by authorities, according to the paper.

Both court officials and prosecutors declined to comment when contacted by AFP. A city government official surnamed Ma said he had "no information so far" about the trials.

The violence that broke out in Urumqi on July 5 pitted Han Chinese against Uighurs, a Turkic-speaking and predominantly Muslim people, in the worst ethnic unrest to hit the country in decades.

The defendants will face charges ranging from disrupting traffic to murder, the paper said, meaning that some of them could be given the death penalty.

The paper did not say how many of the defendants were Uighurs. However, it reported that more than 170 Uighur and 20 Han lawyers had been assigned, suggesting that the bulk were members of the minority group.

Prosecutors have prepared more than 3,300 items of physical evidence for the trial, including bricks and clubs stained with blood, 91 video clips and more than 2,150 photos, the paper said.

Armed police have started around-the-clock patrols in the area near the court building, as security builds up ahead of the trials, the paper said.

"Many bereaved Han families will come to wait for the verdicts, and the authorities fear they may clash with any Uighur in their presence," said Guo Mei, a saleswoman who works near the court.

The paper reported intense public interest in the trials, which will all be public, except from those dealing with "splitting the state".

"I'd be very angry if those rioters receive light sentences or escape justice," said an unnamed worker. "They should be given harsh penalties for causing the loss of so many innocent lives."