The number of people injured in the Urumqi violence on July 5 has risen to 1,680 as of Sunday, according to the government of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

A total of 939 of the injured are hospitalized, said regional government chairman Nur Berkri in a televised speech Sunday afternoon. Altogether 216 of the hospitalized are seriously injured and 74 of them are on the verge of death.

Nur Berkri said all those injured in the violence would be treated at the expense of the local government.

A total of 627 vehicles, including buses, vans, police cars, were smashed and torched in the deadly violence and 184 of them were seriously damaged.

He said as of Sunday, 633 construction units, with a total area of 21,353 square meters, had been damaged in the violence. There are 291 shops among the damaged houses. Twenty-nine of them, covering a floor area of 13,769 square meters, were razed by fire. Most of them were big supermarkets.

(Xinhua News Agency July 12, 2009)