Defiant: a woman confronts armoured vehicles in Urumqi today.

No one noticed her at first. She was just a lined and weary face in the angry crowd. Then slowly she emerged from the mass and moved steadily down the street.

She was a lone woman, propped on a crutch. But she forced armoured personnel carriers and massed paramilitary ranks into a slow – if temporary – retreat during a remarkable confrontation between Chinese armed police and Uighurs in Urumqi today.