The New Nation - Internet Edition

Agency

China has admitted for the first time anti-Beijing protests have spread outside the Tibetan Autonomous Region, as security is ratcheted up.

Xinhua news agency reported huge damage to government buildings and shops after riots in Sichuan province on Sunday.

And officials said 24 people had been arrested after demos in the Tibetan city of Lhasa, and 170 protesters had surrendered to authorities.

Hundreds of troops have been seen pouring into Tibetan areas. Lhasa was said to be returning to calm amid the military build-up. And the authorities have placed strict limits on Western journalists trying to report on the unrest - with the last foreign journalist known to be in Lhasa being forced to leave. Chinese and Tibetan sources have given very different accounts of the protests that began in Lhasa on 10 March, on the anniversary of a Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule.

Police are still everywhere, and for the first time yesterday we saw police going into the houses and doing searches

On Thursday the official Tibet Daily quoted prosecutors as saying two dozen suspects had been arrested for "endangering national security as well as beating, smashing, looting, arson and other grave crimes".

A government website quoted Lhasa deputy chief prosecutor Xie Yanjun as saying that suspects "should be severely punished to protect the strictness of the law".

"This law-breaking was organised, premeditated and carefully planned by the Dalai clique," he said, reiterating China's claim that Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, had incited the unrest.

Tibet: Protests began in Lhasa on 10 March, dozens reported dead over weekend

Gansu: Unrest spread to Machu, where Tibetan government in exile says 19 died, and near Hezuo, where protesters were filmed tearing down Tibetan flag.

State media reported that 170 people had handed themselves in - up from the 105 people they said had surrendered to police in Lhasa after being threatened with harsh punishment if they failed to meet a Monday deadline.

It is not clear whether the 24 arrested are among the 170 reported to have surrendered. Rights groups say they have heard reports of arrests in the hundreds.

Georg Blume, a German journalist who was forced out of Lhasa on Wednesday, told the BBC "things have been getting a little bit back to normal" in the city.

"But police are still everywhere, and for the first time yesterday [Tuesday] we saw police going into the houses and doing searches".

Protesters told him they had been angered by the repression of monks and daily discrimination against Tibetans, he said.

State media also reported for the first time that there had been unrest in the provinces of Sichuan and Gansu, neighbouring Tibet.

Xinhua news agency referred to protesters in Aba country, Sichuan as "mobsters", saying they had caused "great damage" to shops and government offices.

Earlier, video emerged from Gansu showing Tibetans tearing down a Chinese flag and replacing it with a Tibetan one.

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

Chinese authorities have intensified efforts to bring Tibet under control, drawing in troops from neighbouring areas.

On Wednesday alone, BBC reporters saw more than 400 troop carriers and other vehicles on the main road - the largest mobilisation since the unrest began.

Tibetan exiles say that at least 99 people have died, including 80 in Lhasa. China says that 16 people were killed, including three rioters.