30 July 2014 Last updated at 10:42 ET
China has stepped up security in parts of Xinjiang following the region’s worst outbreak of violence for months.
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.
Chinese authorities have stepped up the security presence in key Xinjiang towns and cities
