With his automobile shop in Urumqi razed to the ground, store manager Guo Jianxin returned to the wreckage after fleeing with coworkers to a nearby hill, still frightened and shaking on Sunday.

"Fortunately I managed to escape the attacks," said the Geely car store general manager, hours after violence broke out in the capital of the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.

Amid the riots that engulfed Urumqi, where at least 140 were reportedly killed, many store owners of various ethnic groups in the area said they felt lucky just to be alive after hiding and escaping the chaos.