Huge protests have broken out in China's Xinjiang province after 10 people were killed in an apartment building fire amid strict COVID lockdown restrictions.
A further nine people were injured in the apartment block blaze in
Xinjiang's capital Urumqi on Thursday night, local authorities said.
Xinjiang, home to China's persecuted Uyghur minority, has experienced some of the country's longest lockdown restrictions, with reports of people left starving earlier in the year.
Many of the capital's four million residents have been unable to leave their homes for the past 100 days as Beijing pursues its "dynamic zero
COVID" policy.
Following the blaze, which spread from the 15th to the 21st floor, people took to the streets and chanted "end the lockdown".
Videos circulating on Chinese social media showed residents shouting at officials in hazmat suits and singing a lyric from the national anthem: "Rise up, those who refuse to be slaves!"
Local officials held an impromptu news conference on Friday to deny claims rescue efforts at the apartment block were hampered by part of the building being under strict lockdown.