Sixty people were killed and 309 injured when a vehicle carrying explosives blew up Friday in the town of Urumqi in China's northwest region of Xinjiang, Xinhua news agency reported Saturday.
According to local authorities, the vehicle exploded on Friday at about 7:30 P.M. in the western suburbs of the town.
Xinhua, which earlier reported 100 "victims" of the blast without saying how many were killed or injured, said there would be an inquiry into the cause of the explosion.
The agency did not say whether or not it was the work of separatists in the province.
Separatist sentiment among ethnic minorities in the region, in particular the Muslim Uighur community, has been bubbling under the surface despite years of Chinese repression in Xinjiang.
Tension has also been exacerbated by the migration of some 4.6 million Han Chinese to the region, encouraged by Beijing -- BEIJING (AFP)
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