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The incident comes amid simmering tensions in the restive region, home to about eight million Uighurs -- many of whom say they have suffered political and religious persecution for decades.
Ilham Mahmut, the head of the Japan Uighur Association, told AFP in Tokyo, citing Internet communications from China, that he had heard the confrontation involved about 3,000 Uighurs and at least 300 had been arrested.
He said 1,000 police used electric cattle prods and fired gunshots into the air to try to disband the demonstration.
Dilxat Raxit, spokesman for the Germany-based World Uighur Congress, said sources told him that more than 100 people had been detained.
Mahmut said demonstrators were regrouping to continue the protest. "About 400 people are trying to resume the demonstration," he added.
He said it was sparked by a recent deadly dispute at a toy factory between Han Chinese and Uighurs over a rumour that members of the ethnic minority had abused a Chinese woman -- a clash that left two dead.
Authorities in Xinjiang could not be immediately contacted and Xinhua released only a three paragraph report that did not say how many people were involved or why the violence occurred.
China tightly controls Xinjiang, a region of vast deserts and towering mountains that borders central Asia, having long said it faces a deadly threat from Muslim separatists.
Uighur exile groups accuse Beijing of inflating the threat as an excuse to suppress their culture and ethnic identity.
Chinese police announced last month they had smashed seven terror cells this year in the region.
In April, two Uighur men were executed in Kashgar for what China called a "terrorist" attack last August in the city aimed at sabotaging the Olympics, and which state media reported then left 17 policemen dead.
That incident was the most serious in a wave of unrest in Xinjiang ahead of and during the Beijing Olympic Games.
This year marks 60 years since China's People's Liberation Army entered Xinjiang and implemented what it called a "peaceful liberation" of the region, but advocates of independence for the area view the move as an invasion.
While the Chinese government is looking to celebrate the anniversary, it has warned that separatists are planning more attacks.
"The (security) situation will be more severe, the task more arduous and the struggle more fierce in the region this year," Nur Bekri, the chairman of the Xinjiang regional government, said in March.
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Ilham Mahmut, the head of the Japan Uighur Association, told AFP in Tokyo, citing Internet communications from China, that he had heard the confrontation involved about 3,000 Uighurs and at least 300 had been arrested.
He said 1,000 police used electric cattle prods and fired gunshots into the air to try to disband the demonstration.
Dilxat Raxit, spokesman for the Germany-based World Uighur Congress, said sources told him that more than 100 people had been detained.
Mahmut said demonstrators were regrouping to continue the protest. "About 400 people are trying to resume the demonstration," he added.
He said it was sparked by a recent deadly dispute at a toy factory between Han Chinese and Uighurs over a rumour that members of the ethnic minority had abused a Chinese woman -- a clash that left two dead.
Authorities in Xinjiang could not be immediately contacted and Xinhua released only a three paragraph report that did not say how many people were involved or why the violence occurred.
China tightly controls Xinjiang, a region of vast deserts and towering mountains that borders central Asia, having long said it faces a deadly threat from Muslim separatists.
Uighur exile groups accuse Beijing of inflating the threat as an excuse to suppress their culture and ethnic identity.
Chinese police announced last month they had smashed seven terror cells this year in the region.
In April, two Uighur men were executed in Kashgar for what China called a "terrorist" attack last August in the city aimed at sabotaging the Olympics, and which state media reported then left 17 policemen dead.
That incident was the most serious in a wave of unrest in Xinjiang ahead of and during the Beijing Olympic Games.
This year marks 60 years since China's People's Liberation Army entered Xinjiang and implemented what it called a "peaceful liberation" of the region, but advocates of independence for the area view the move as an invasion.
While the Chinese government is looking to celebrate the anniversary, it has warned that separatists are planning more attacks.
"The (security) situation will be more severe, the task more arduous and the struggle more fierce in the region this year," Nur Bekri, the chairman of the Xinjiang regional government, said in March.
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