An armed Chinese policeman watches as a Uighur woman and her son cross the road in the city of Urumqi. (David Gray/Reuters)Chinese police shot and killed two Uighur men and injured a third Monday in northwestern Xinjiang province as security forces patrol the streets to clamp down on ethnic violence.

China's state-run Xinhua news agency said the deadly shooting occurred in the regional capital Urumqi as police tried to stop a group of Uighurs from attacking another Uighur man, said a report from Reuters.

Three men used clubs and knives to attack a fourth man near a hospital, said Xinhua. Police fired warning shots before shooting at the three attackers, said the report. The man who was injured by police was taken to hospital, but his condition is not known.

Photos taken at the time show one policeman raising his rifle to strike a man. The man lay on the ground with blood on his right leg. Police formed a ring around him, pointing their guns up at surrounding buildings.

The Chinese government has poured security forces into the streets and imposed curfews to crack down on more than a week of clashes that left at least 184 people dead.

The violence, which erupted on July 5, was sparked by demonstrations in Urumqi as people gathered to demand justice for two Uighurs killed in June during a fight with their Han co-workers at a factory in southern China.

The Uighurs, an ethnically Turkic, predominantly Muslim group, make up the majority in Xinjiang province. They've complained about an influx of ethnic Han Chinese to the region and accused the country's communist government of trying to erase Uighur language and culture.

Many Uighurs feel they're discriminated against by the government in Beijing and a Uighur separatist movement has existed for decades.

With files from The Associated Press