Crowds gathered at a number of sites in Urumqi Thursday morning demanding security guarantees from authorities following hypodermic syringe attacks in the capital city of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

At 10:50 a.m.Thursday, more than 1,000 people started to gather at the residential quarter of Xiaoximen, said a police officer who requested anonymity.

Chenggong Plaza and Baiqing Market, two major marketplaces near Xiaoximen, were not open for business as late as 10:30 a.m. Instead, many traders gathered at entrances to the marketplaces. Business owners whose shops lined the street said they feared there would not be much business during the day.

People also turned out in big crowds at the Renmin Cinema and Beiyuanchun farmers' produce wholesale market.

The police officer said people took to the streets around the market after a man stabbed a five-year-old girl Thursday morning, the latest in a string of attacks. The man was caught by pedestrians.

Members of the Uygur ethnic minority were also among the protesting crowds.

Wang Lequan, secretary of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Regional Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), and Li Zhi, secretary of the CPC Urumqi City Committee, called on the crowds, on two separate occasions, to stay calm and show restraint.

The attacks came less than two months since July 5 when 197 people were killed, and 1,600 others injured in a riot in Urumqi.

Zhu Hailun, head of the political and legal affairs commission of the Communist Party of China (CPC) committee in Xinjiang, said members of nine ethnic groups including the Han, Uygur, Hui, Kazak and Mongolian had reported stabbing incidents to the police in recent days.

Local police had seized 15 suspects for attacking people with hypodermic needles in Urumqi after receiving reports of the attacks, said Zhu.

Of the 15, four had been officially arrested and prosecuted and their judgments would be handed down shortly, Zhu said.

(Xinhua News Agency September 3, 2009)