传，上海有针扎事件

BEIJING — At least 5 people have been killed and 14 wounded during days of protests by ethnic Han demanding a government clampdown on Uighurs in the capital of the restive western region of Xinjiang, according to the state news agency, which quoted the city’s deputy mayor. The deputy mayor, Zhang Hong, gave the casualty toll at a news conference late Friday night in Urumqi, the regional capital. The news agency, Xinhua, did not report the ethnicities of the victims and had no other details. Urumqi remained paralyzed Friday as Han protesters continued to rally in parts of the city to call for greater security measures, forcing the government to close schools, offices and shops to keep people off the streets and to block traffic from the city center. The police used tear gas to disperse protesters, and loud booms from the firing of gas canisters could be heard from the city center, witnesses said. Helicopters were seen swooping overhead in the morning, a day after tens of thousands of Han, the dominant ethnic group in China, took to the streets to criticize the government for failing to prevent what they believe to be needle-stabbing attacks by Uighurs, according to an earlier report by Xinhua. Some of the Han said the needles were infected with H.I.V. Tensions between Uighurs, a Turkic-speaking people who are largely Muslim, and Han have remained high since rioting broke out in early July, in China’s worst ethnic violence in decades. At least 197 people were killed and 1,721 wounded, according to the government, and most of the dead were Han. The violence brought to the surface the resentments that have long coursed through society in Xinjiang. Uighurs complain that the ruling Han discriminate against them, and Han say the Uighurs are ungrateful for the benefits that Han governance has brought. On Friday, groups of protesters continued to gather in front of the offices of the regional government to demand the resignation of Wang Lequan, the top Communist Party official in Xinjiang, an oil-rich and ethnically fractious region that makes up one-sixth of China. The Han protesters said that Mr. Wang had failed to make the city safe for Han residents after the July riots. Mr. Wang, a proponent of hard-line ethnic minority policies who has ruled Xinjiang for 15 years, is a member of the Communist Party’s Politburo, and the outcry is a rare attack against a member of the country’s governing elite. Talk of the hypodermic needle attacks spread quickly in recent days, fueled by official news reports on the assaults. The local authorities told Chinese reporters that the police had arrested 21 suspects. Then, as outrage poured into the streets, starting with a small protest Wednesday, the government deployed more security forces around the city and tried to delete mentions of the needle attacks from the Internet. Li Zhi, the party secretary of Urumqi, was at various sites on Thursday trying to calm protesters. Mr. Li said that someone had tried to attack a woman with a needle on Wednesday and was detained by the police, according to Xinhua. “The current situation is that a very few hostile elements are maliciously sabotaging the capital’s stability,” he said. “Their goal is to create ethnic estrangement and incite ethnic opposition.” On Friday, groups of angry Han young men shoved against lines of police officers to try to get to the main Uighur quarter. “The situation is even more tense than it was yesterday,” a Han driver in Urumqi said Friday. “The entire downtown has been cut off from incoming traffic. There are no buses running, either.” The driver, who spoke on the condition that his name not be used, said he had seen a Han mob beating a Uighur woman at 6 p.m. Thursday. “These people are just so angry,” he said.