AFP - Authorities in China's restive Xinjiang region have arrested 94 fugitives suspected of involvement in deadly ethnic violence in July, state-run media said on Wednesday.

The report by Xinhua news agency appeared to indicate that further harsh sentences could be forthcoming over the violence, for which China has already executed nine people and sentenced eight others to death.

Violence erupted in the streets of the Xinjiang capital Urumqi on July 5, when Uighurs -- a Muslim minority that has long complained of repression under Chinese rule -- attacked members of China's Han ethnic majority.

The fugitives were seized as part of a month-long large-scale crackdown on general crime in November that busted 66 criminal gangs and resulted in the arrests of 382 people, Xinhua said.

It quoted Xinjiang police as saying the crackdown was aimed at "consolidating stability and eliminating security risks."

It gave no information on the ethnicity of those arrested.

China's roughly eight million Turkic-speaking Uighurs accuse authorities of decades of religious, political and cultural oppression -- which Beijing denies -- and tensions have simmered in Xinjiang for years.

The violence in July was the worst in China in decades and left nearly 200 people dead and more than 1,600 injured, according to official figures.

So far, 41 people have been tried and sentenced over the unrest.

Most of those sentenced to death have been Uighurs, based on names provided in state media reports.

Uighurs say the violence was initially triggered when police cracked down harshly on peaceful protests in Urumqi sparked by a brawl at a factory in southern China that state media said left two Uighurs dead.

China claims it faces a serious separatist threat in Xinjiang. But exiled Uighurs say Beijing hypes the threat to justify harsh controls in the strategic western region, which is rich in energy reserves.