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URUMQI, China: An oil tank exploded at a chemical plant belonging to China's biggest energy producer here on Sunday, authorities said, one week after ethnic unrest here left more than 180 people dead.
An official with Urumqi's firefighting department said there were no casualties at the factory in the northeast part of Urumqi, the capital of China's northwest Xinjiang region.
The official, who declined to be named, said the cause of the explosion was not yet known, and the fire had been extinguished.
China's official Xinhua news agency said the blast occurred at the China National Petroleum Corporation factory about 10:00 am (0200 GMT) on Sunday and was put out by midday.
Xinhua said no casualties had been reported.
It said the cause of the blast was being investigated, drawing no link with the recent unrest in Urumqi.
The local government and police were not immediately available for comment.
The blast came exactly one week after unrest between Muslim Uighurs and Han Chinese erupted in Urumqi, leaving 184 people dead and more than 1,000 injured.
Members of the Uighur minority took to the streets and attacked Han Chinese last Sunday, according to victims and witnesses AFP spoke with here.
However exiled Uighur leaders insist Uighur protests were peaceful until security forces over-reacted with deadly force, and that further deaths have occurred following Sunday's unrest.
Thousands of Han Chinese early in the week then took to the streets of Urumqi wielding knives, poles, meat cleavers and other makeshift weapons, vowing vengeance against the Uighurs.
The mobs attacked some Uighurs, but the extent of the violence appeared not nearly as great as on July 5, with a massive security presence separating Han from Uighur.
Xinjiang's eight million Uighurs make up nearly half the population of the region, and have long complained of repression and discrimination under Chinese rule.
But Beijing insists its rule in Xinjiang is fair, and that it has brought economic prosperity to the region.
- AFP/yt
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