Gunfire on the Streets of Lhasa As Rallies Turn Violent

Tibet's capital was in the grip of violence last night, as gunfire and rioting took over the streets of Lhasa in the fiercest anti-government protests for 20 years.

Automatic gunfire was heard, tanks were seen in the center and armed police used water cannon and teargas as young Tibetans set security vehicles on fire and stoned Chinese residents. A witness said Chinese drivers were carried from vehicles with bloodied faces after being beaten by angry youths.

Reports claimed that several people, possibly including a teenage girl, had been killed and dozens seriously wounded in the clashes. Protesters are also said to have burned down a mosque and a market, smashed up a government telecommunications office, attacked hotels and looted shops.

But details of the events are difficult to confirm because communication with the tightly controlled region are severely restricted, even in calm periods.

There were unconfirmed reports last night that Tibet TV had announced a curfew in Lhasa.

"The violence, involving beating, smashing, looting and burning, has disrupted the public order, jeopardized people's lives and property," the official news agency, Xinhua, quoted an official as saying.

"The plots by the very few people against the stability and harmony of Tibet run counter to the will of the people and are doomed to fail," he said, adding that the government was "fully capable of maintaining social stability" in the region.

The Chinese government has yet to make a statement.

The Free Tibet Campaign said protests seemed to be building outside the Tibetan Autonomous Region, with up to 4,000 Tibetans - mainly lay people - clashing with security forces after they marched from Labrang monastery to government offices in Xiahe, Gansu province. It quoted a witness who said the crowd dispersed after police fired into the air.

The Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibet's Buddhists, urged China not to use violence, describing the protests as "a manifestation of the deep-rooted resentment of the Tibetan people under the present governance".

The demonstrations began with peaceful protests by monks on Monday, the anniversary of the failed 1959 uprising against Chinese rule that led to the Dalai Lama's flight to India. But tensions rose swiftly as security forces closed off the city's three biggest monasteries.

The protests present hard choices for the president, Hu Jintao, who was Communist party chief in the region when China cracked down on fierce protests and imposed martial law. China is determined to polish its international image before the Olympics in August, but will be anxious that failing to stamp out the unrest could allow it to grow.

The EU and the White House issued statements urging China to show restraint.

Radio Free Asia, a radio station funded by the US government, quoted witnesses as saying that two bodies were seen lying on the ground. The Free Tibet campaign said it was told by a witness that three lay people and a monk had died and Students for a Free Tibet (India) claimed police had shot dead a teenage girl after the Chinese government ordered the deployment of 10,000 troops in the city.

A tourist in Lhasa told the Guardian that trouble had flared in the early afternoon at the Jokhang monastery in the heart of the city as a young Tibetan man, egged on by bystanders, began to attack a security vehicle.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, he said: "They started throwing bricks and stones and sticks. They turned over a couple of police cars and set fire to them. The crowds were throwing stones at any passing cars. There was a lot of black smoke as we left the center and we saw seven big troop carriers heading into town full of soldiers."

He said he and his friends saw up to 10 snipers in the square. Later in the evening they heard automatic gunfire from the direction of the center and saw tanks.

Another eyewitness said he heard an explosion and about 10 shots a minute at one point in the afternoon, but thought it was teargas rather than bullets being fired because he saw people running from plumes of smoke and covering their mouths.

"I am too afraid to go out," the resident, who asked to remain anonymous, said. "It is chaos out there."

The resident, who is from the Chinese Han ethnic group, said he saw Tibetans attack two fire engines.

"I saw Tibetans throwing stones at the vehicles. They dragged drivers from vehicles, took off their uniforms and helmets, then beat them.

"The chanting mob beat up around five or six drivers who had to be carried away with blood on their faces ... then they put a motorbike under the fire engine and set fire to it so the engine was burned."

A blogger who writes from Lhasa under the name Beifang described the violence on his blog. "Police cars and fire engines were outside smashed and burned.

"A lot of Tibetans ran towards Dazhao [Jokhang] temple. I heard gunshots. Five army police vehicles drove that way. A large number of armed police followed. A few people with blood on their faces were taken away."

Several witnesses reported armed police in armored vehicles blocking major intersections in the city center and the square in front of the Potala Palace, formerly the winter residence of the Dalai Lama.

A Tibetan guide quoted by Associated Press said: "As I approached Potala Square, I heard cannon fire, louder than rifles. Others told me police were firing teargas along Beijing Zhonglu, west of the Potala."

An eyewitness told the Guardian that elsewhere in the city there appeared to be no police or military presence as Tibetans attacked Han Chinese indiscriminately, hurling stones.

About a dozen monks were reportedly detained on Monday, when several hundred from the Sera and Drepung monasteries took to the streets.

The International Campaign for Tibet said on Thursday that two monks at the Drepung monastery had stabbed themselves and others had gone on hunger strike.