BEIJING: Crowds of angry Han Chinese protesters took to the streets of the city of Urumqi today to demand better security, less than two months after deadly unrest rocked the capital of mainly Muslim Xinjiang. Police ordered residents to stay indoors and stationed officers throughout the city, in a forceful response aimed at staving off a second wave of bloodshed following that seen here in July, when nearly 200 people were killed.

The state Xinhua news agency said “big crowds” had gathered in several points across the city to protest a series of syringe attacks against members of various ethnic groups in the city. Shops and markets were shuttered. The precise number of demonstrators was not immediately clear. Witnesses described large crowds, with some putting the turnout in the

thousands.

Xinhua noted that some ethnic Uighurs, who clashed with Han Chinese in July in the worst ethnic unrest to hit the country in decades, were among the protesters.