A crowd of protestors surrounded a group of foreign journalists in Xinjiang's capital Urumqi Tuesday morning, shouting slogans and creating a chaos two days after a riot killed 156 people and injured more than 1,000.

The departments of public security and judiciary are now busy identifying the dead left from Sunday's riot in Urumqi, capital of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Jierla Yishamuding, mayor of the city, said at a press conference on Tuesday. [Xinhua]

A regional government spokesman said the foreign journalists, about 60 in number, were in Xinjiang on a reporting trip arranged by the Information Office of the State Council, the Chinese Cabinet.

They were visiting a Uygur community near a downtown racecourse when a woman and her child came up, crying and demanding police to release her husband, who she said was under arrest over Sunday's riot, a spokesman with the regional public security department said.

He said armed police officers were at site to maintain order and protect the reporters.

At least 300 people joined the protest and about 1,000 people were watching, Xinhua reporters saw at the site.

As of 12 pm, police had persuaded most of the protestors to leave the scene.

Police in Xinjiang have arrested 1,434 suspects over Sunday's deadly riot, including 1,379 men and 55 women. They are said to have conducted violent acts of killing, beating, smashing, looting and burning.

The violence is a preempted, organized violent crime, according to the Chinese government.

(Xinhua News Agency July 7, 2009)