The New Nation - Internet Edition

Agencies

More than 100 people have turned themselves in to police following anti-China riots in Tibet's main city, Lhasa, Chinese state media has said.

The authorities had threatened to punish harshly protesters who failed to surrender by a Monday night deadline.

Lhasa police have been searching homes and making arrests, activists say.

The news came as video emerged from nearby Gansu province showing Tibetans tear down a Chinese flag and replacing it with a Tibetan flag on Tuesday.

Hundreds of protesters can be seen on foot and horseback in the incident at a school near Hezuo, captured on camera by a Canadian film crew.

The demonstrators attempted to march on a government building before security forces used tear gas to stop them, reports from the scene said.

The protest followed several other reported incidents of unrest - some of them involving apparently more serious violence - in provinces close to the Tibetan border with large ethnic Tibetan populations.

Correspondents say China's authorities will be very anxious to stop the protests spreading from Tibet.

The Chinese government and rights groups have provided radically different accounts of the past week's unrest.

The Tibetan government in exile in India says 99 people have now died in clashes with security forces - 80 in Lhasa and 19 shot dead on Tuesday in Machu, Gansu province.

Foreign journalists have not been allowed into Lhasa and the flow of information is tightly controlled, making it difficult to verify either of these claims. China's handling of the Tibet issue is being watched closely by world leaders in the run-up to the Beijing Olympics.

Officials said on Wednesday that the Olympic torch - which will be carried across China ahead of the Games - will still go through Tibet despite the current troubles.

It is due to be carried to the top of Mount Everest in May, and to pass through Lhasa in June. BBC correspondents have described seeing military convoys heading into Tibet from neighbouring regions.

On Wednesday, the BBC's Dan Griffiths in western China reported seeing more than 400 military vehicles heading to Tibet, the largest he had seen so far.

Some were carrying soldiers armed with automatic rifles and bayonets, others held troops wearing helmets and riot shields.