Several people in Yarkant county and Kashgar told the BBC the streets were full of checkpoints and police patrols.

They also reported internet and social media services were cut. Separately, a leading Uighur scholar has been formally charged with separatism.

Dozens were killed or injured in the violence on Monday, state media say. Many of the dead were shot by police.

Xinhua news agency said a knife-wielding gang attacked a police station and government offices in Yarkant, which is known as Shache in China.

The BBC's Damian Grammaticas in Beijing says it appears that among those killed were police officers and ethnic Han Chinese settlers. Dozens of people were injured, possibly by police firing.

Confirming what happened is difficult, as information is tightly controlled in China. Xinhua's article came out only several hours after international media outlets including the BBC reported the violence.

The BBC made several calls to various Xinjiang government offices but officials refused to answer questions.

A report by The Global Times quoted an unnamed insider as saying that the incident began when police checkpoints at Elixku discovered explosives, which led to clashes between the police and "attackers".

Some of these attackers escaped and later recruited others to attack the local government and police station, the report said.

But activists have disputed such accounts, saying the violence erupted as members of the local Uighur population protested against a crackdown on Muslims observing Ramadan.loemg123的家園心情脚落-往事回忆教育之行-實踐創新麗之約-瘦出靚麗的你新聞諮詢網-焦點訪談

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