The Chinese State media reported that 27 people were killed Wednesday morning in a deadly clash between residents and police in China's far western Xinjiang region.
Without unveiling what caused the clash, the official Xinhua News Agency said mobs armed with knives initially attacked police stations, a local government building and a construction site in the region.
Out of the 27 dead, nine were police men. Three people were seriously injured in the clashes, according to reports.
Recently, exiled leader from the region, Rebiya Kadeer expressed outrage against the Beijing government for it security restrictions and clamp down on the people of the region.
"Recently, police and Special Forces have been permitted to search every house without reason," said Rebiya Kadeer.
"If the owners put up a fight for invasion of privacy, they will simply kill them and say there was terrorist activity in the house-an incident like this just happened in May in the countryside," added the exiled leader.
Xinjiang is one of the most troubled regions in the country and Wednesday's unrest is the latest incident in a string of riots that took place in recent months.
Last April, more than 20 people were reported killed in a similar unrest in the region.
Xinjiang, which is home to a large population of minority Uighurs is reportedly being flooded with Han Chinese in recent years.
In 2009, around 200 people were killed during ethnic riots in the region.
The exiled leader told the Wall Street Journal that she was hoping that the new Chinese leader Xi Jinping would ease the ethnic tensions in the region but she was becoming "pessimistic" because of the recent clamp down on her people in the region.
She said the pressure on her people had become harsher in recent times.
Courts in the region this month have sentenced 11 ethnic Uighurs to up to six years in prison on charges of promoting "racial hatred" and "religious extremism" online. The Beijing government cracks down on anyone it suspects of spreading "separate spirit" among the minorities and complaints of Beijing's policies as discriminative and suppressive in nature.
