Chinese migrants who have flocked to the country's far northwest lured by government policies to enrich the region say ethnic violence has made them fear for their lives -- and their livelihoods.

Twenty-one people have been killed in the famed ancient Silk Road city of Kashgar in the latest explosion of violence to hit the resource-rich Xinjiang region, with authorities blaming members of the mainly Muslim Uighur minority.

The violence has again highlighted deep ethnic tensions in Xinjiang, home to around nine million Uighurs who say rapid economic growth unfairly benefits immigrants from China's majority Han ethnic group, leaving them marginalised.

But many Han Chinese also feel as if they are victims.

"It's too disorderly outside, it's not safe," said Zhang Ming, one of many whose move to Xinjiang -- part of plans to develop the poorer west -- has sparked tensions with local Uighurs.

The 34-year-old recently left her home in central China to open a restaurant thousands of kilometres (miles) away in Kashgar, lured by the prospect of making money in the fast-growing but restive city.

But she is worried about the prospects for her restaurant -- due to open next week -- after knife-wielding assailants killed eight bystanders at a nearby food market on Saturday.

"There's no business now as a result," she told AFP as she sat surrounded by restaurants shuttered up after the violence.

"I'm hoping it won't be long before things get back to normal, as we're due to open the restaurant next week."

A 32-year-old bed maker surnamed Ye said he moved to Kashgar from the northern city of Xian seven years ago, attracted by government plans to develop the region, and has since watched ethnic tensions steadily worsen.

"These incidents have happened before here, but never so close to home," said Ye, who lives near the scene of Saturday's attack at the food market.

"When I first got here, things were much better. But the situation has got worse, particularly in the past few years."

Zhang Tigang, the manager of a big outdoor market in Kashgar, said many small business owners who were from other parts of China had fled home since the attacks.

"They're waiting for the government to say the situation is calm again before they come back," Zhang told AFP.

Of the 21 people killed in Kashgar since Saturday, 13 were civilians and eight were alleged attackers. Two of the suspects were shot dead by police late Monday as they tried to flee.

It was the worst violence to hit Kashgar since 2008, when two Uighur attackers ploughed a truck into a group of jogging police officers and then launched machete attacks, killing 16.

Then in 2009, the government said about 200 people were killed in clashes between Uighurs and Han Chinese in the regional capital of Urumqi.

China says much of the Xinjiang unrest has been masterminded by overseas, "separatist" forces, and on Monday it blamed Muslim "terrorists" trained in neighbouring Pakistan for some of the weekend violence in Kashgar.

But some experts say there is little evidence to show an organised, dangerous opposition exists in Xinjiang, and that the government is unwilling to see the unrest within its borders as stemming from oppression.

One Uighur man interviewed by AFP in Kashgar expressed the deep frustrations that critics of Chinese authorities say they refuse to acknowledge.

"Look at the Han and the Uighurs -- who is rich and who is poor?" said the man, aged in his 20s, whom AFP did not identify due to the sensitivity of the issue.

"Some Uighurs go to university in Urumqi, they graduate, come back and can't find jobs. These all go to the Han. And even when they do find jobs, their salaries are low."

As the region develops, Kashgar is getting a huge facelift. Modern buildings -- the likes of which are seen in every city in China -- are springing up all over Kashgar as authorities tear down much of the old Uighur quarter.

A model of what Kashgar will look like in the future -- at an exhibition dedicated to its designation as a special economic zone -- shows an ever-expanding sea of high rises surrounding a small remnant of the old city.

After the weekend attacks Rebiya Kadeer, the US-based president of the World Uighur Congress, said Uighurs had been "pushed to despair by Chinese policies".

"Regardless of the dangers posed to those who do dissent, Uighurs continue to express their unhappiness with Chinese policies; however, Chinese authorities have not heeded any of these expressions of discontent," she said.

Foreign journalists covering the aftermath of the violence in Kashgar were Tuesday operating under strict official reporting limits, with some barred from interviewing people without prior authorisation.

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