Beijing - China's foreign ministry on Saturday advised tourists to be careful when travelling to the German city of Munich after a reported attack on a Chinese tour group by Uighur minority exiles.

"According to information from the Chinese consulate in Munich, on July 7, a Chinese tour group in Germany's Munich city was violently attacked by 'East Turkestan' elements," the ministry said in a statement, referring to the name used by Uighurs advocating an independent East Turkestan in China's Xinjiang region.

There were no immediate reports of injury following the attack, the ministry said.

It said Chinese officials had "made representations" to their German counterparts and asked for Germany to handle the matter "according to the law."

China had also requested Germany "take effective measures to protect the life and property of Chinese citizens in Germany," the ministry said.

State media said the National Tourism Administration also issued a statement on Saturday urging Chinese tourists to exercise caution in Munich.

After rioting and ethnic clashes that left at least 184 people dead since Sunday, Uighurs and their supporters gathered at the Chinese consulate in Munich on Wednesday to urge the G8 leaders to issde a statement on the unrest.

Dolkun Isa, general secretary of the World Uighur Congress (WUC), told reporters in Munich that many Uighurs had been lynched by Han Chinese mobs.

Uighur exiles claim that up to 800 people died in the violence, some of them shot or beaten to death by Chinese police.

The tension has been tangible in Munich between local Uighurs and Han Chinese, according to German politician Markus Rinderspacher, a Social Democrat in the Bavarian state legislature.

In another sign of the diplomatic fallout from the violence in Urumqi, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday said the events in Urumqi were a "form of genocide". (dpa)