Beijing - Police in southern China's Guangdong province have detained a "rumour monger" whose online message is thought to have triggered a deadly brawl between Chinese and Uighur minority staff at his former factory, state media said on Monday. The unnamed man posted a message saying that "Six Xinjiang boys raped two innocent girls at the Xuri Toy Factory," leading local Chinese workers to confront the Uighur workers, who are from China's Central Asian region of Xinjiang, the official Xinhua news agency said.
The mass brawl at the plant in Guangdong's Shaoguan city on Thursday night left two Uighurs dead and 118 people injured, including 14 in critical condition.
Police found that the former worker, identified only by the surname Zhu, had "faked the information to express his discontent" because the factory failed to re-employ him following his resignation, the agency quoted a city government spokesman as saying.
More than 60 injured workers remained in hospital on Monday, but the 14 critically injured people were in stable condition, it quoted doctors as saying.
Hundreds of workers joined the fight on Thursday, with more than 400 police deployed to restore order, earlier reports said.
More than 600 Uighur workers at the factory were sent to temporary accommodation away from the factory, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported.
The semi-official China News Service said Public Security Minister Meng Jianzhu ordered an investigation into the violence.