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URUMQI, China — China's security chief blamed Muslim separatists Friday for a string of bizarre needle attacks that drew thousands of angry protesters into the streets as officials disclosed five people were killed and 14 injured during demonstrations in this restive city.
Police fired tear gas to break up continuing protests by thousands of Han Chinese, the country's majority ethnic group, underscoring how unsettled Urumqi remains despite a massive security crackdown following ethnic rioting in July that left 197 people dead.
The Xinjiang region, of which Urumqi is the capital, has for decades faced a simmering separatist movement by Uighurs, a largely Muslim ethnic group.
Deputy Mayor Zhang Hong said the most recent deaths all came Thursday, the first day of the demonstrations. Zhang said two of those killed were "innocent," but gave no other details of their identities or the circumstances of their deaths, other than saying they occurred in "small-scale clashes." He said authorities were still investigating the other three deaths.
Earlier Friday, Public Security Minister Meng Jianzhu said the same Muslim separatists that Beijing blames for the July 5 ethnic rioting also orchestrated the syringe attacks.
"The needle stabbing incident is a continuation of the '7-5' incident, and it's plotted by unlawful elements and instigated by ethnic separatist forces," Meng said in comments broadcast on nationwide television. "Their purpose is to damage ethnic unity."
Meng, who was dispatched to Urumqi to direct the police action, provided no evidence to back up his charges, nor has the government substantiated accusations that separatists incited July's violence. By most accounts, the riot started after police confronted protesters from the Muslim Uighur ethnic group, who then attacked Han Chinese. Days later, Han vigilantes tore through Uighur neighborhoods to retaliate.
Zhang said 21 people were detained on suspicion of carrying out the needle attacks and four indicted. He said all of those held were Uighurs, while most of the victims were Han.
Meng's comments marked the first time authorities suggested Uighur separatists were involved in the stabbings, which have fed rumors and fear in the city for days. The syringe attacks were first publicly reported Wednesday.
His arrival in Urumqi indicated Chinese leaders' anxiety that order was slipping in the often-tense city of 2.5 million and that violence between Han and Uighur could flare anew.
Police used tear gas and public appeals Friday to break up Han crowds who attempted repeatedly to break through to government offices. Predominantly Uighur neighborhoods were sealed off by security forces who formed barriers at street entrances.
The July rioting was the worst communal violence to hit Xinjiang in more than a decade.
Meng vowed the government would speed up charging and prosecuting more than 1,200 people detained after the riots, in which 197 people were killed and about 1,700 injured.
"We should quicken the pace of dealing with the detained suspects and dig up the plotters behind this, and severely punish the murderers," Meng said.
Local police said hospitals in Urumqi were now treating 531 people who believed they were attacked by hypodermic needles, 55 more than previously reported, the official Xinhua New Agency said. About 106 showed obvious signs of needle attacks, it said.
So far, none of those stabbed showed any signs of infection or poisonings, state media has said. Infection by AIDS is a concern given Xinjiang's high rate of HIV cases, spread by needle-sharing among drug users.
None of 160 or so people treated at the Urumqi Medical College Hospital showed symptoms of AIDS or hepatitis, said Lin Fangmu, director at the preventative medicine department. The most common symptom they displayed was "mainly just fear, terror," Lin said.
Needle attacks as a method of spreading terror have been used by gangs in the United States. In China in the late 1990s, there were rumors that people infected with AIDS were jabbing people with needles in the coastal city of Tianjin because they were upset at having been denied subsidized medical treatment.
Global intelligence company Stratfor said reports of hypodermic needle attacks may be overblown.
"In the current case, the wild reporting suggests a fair amount of hysteria and exaggeration," Stratfor said in a report.
It noted Chinese chat rooms were filled with accounts of people knowing someone who was stabbed, "but almost no cases of people saying they themselves were stabbed."
"These sorts of second- and third-hand reports are common characteristics of the spread of such urban legends," it said.
Undeterred by an overnight curfew, hundreds of young Han Chinese men protested Friday outside the headquarters of Xinjiang party secretary Wang Lequan — an ally of President Hu Jintao_ chanting for him to step down.
Armed police in riot gear marched into the crowd to push back demonstrators, some waving Chinese flags and singing the national anthem.
One Han man, who brought his 9-year-old daughter, argued with paramilitary police.
"It's been two months already. How many more months are we going to wait, how long before us Han can feel safe?" said the man, who would give only his surname, Ma.
A truck with loudspeakers circled behind him with a voice recording saying repeatedly: "Disperse. Don't stay here. Think of the nation."