Local officials and civilians were stabbed and police vehicles set alight in China's autonomous Xinjiang region.
The riots happened in a town in the Turpan Oasis in Xinjiang (file)
By Sky News Beijing Bureau
At least 27 people have been killed and three others injured after knife-wielding gangs went on the rampage through a town in far western China, according to state media.
The Xinhua news agency said mobs attacked police stations, a local government building and a construction site in the Turpan Oasis in the Turkic-speaking Xinjiang region.
Nine police officers and security guards, as well as eight civilians, were killed before police shot dead 10 of the attackers.
The death toll from the unrest was the worst in the restive region since July 2009, when nearly 200 people were killed in riots in the regional capital Urumqi, involving local predominantly Muslim Uighurs and ethnic Han Chinese.
Xinhua said Wednesday's unrest erupted at about 6am in the remote township of Lukqun, about 120 miles southeast of Urumqi.
Gangs attacked officials and civilians, stabbing people and setting fire to police vehicles, Xinhua reported.
Residents told Sky News there was a heavy police presence in the township. Search results for the words Xinjiang and Lukqun, in both English and Chinese, were unavailable on Chinese search engines.
A map showing to location of the Turpan Oasis in Xinjiang
http://news.sky.com/story/1108240/china-riots-mobs-attack-police-in-xinjiang
