Documents reportedly leaked from internment camps in China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region have raised international concerns about the human rights situation in the country.

The documents were sent to a US-based German researcher, Adrian Zenz, by an anonymous source who hacked into databases operated by the Chinese authorities.

The files apparently date from 2017 and 2018. They contain photographs allegedly taken in so-called reeducation camps in Xinjiang, lists of internees, and records of remarks made by senior Communist Party members.

A former party secretary in Xinjiang, Chen Quanguo, is quoted as saying that says no one can escape from the camps, and he reportedly urges officials to shoot anyone who tries to flee.

China's Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Wang Wenbin told reporters on Tuesday that this is the latest example of "the anti-China forces' smearing of Xinjiang," adding that "the lies and rumors they spread cannot deceive the world."

In online talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Tuesday, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock called for "a transparent investigation" of the alleged human rights abuses in the region.