SYDNEY—Agitated pro-Tibetan protesters fought a running battle with police today outside the Chinese consulate in Sydney after 10 people were reported dead in protests in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa.
Up to seven arrests were made after the protest began soon after 4pm (AEDT) at Camperdown in the inner-west.
The protest by members of Sydney's Tibetan community turned violent after about 40 of their number surrounded two police officers sent to watch the demonstration.
About 30 police officers rushed to scene were forced to use batons and capsicum spray as the protest disintegrated into chaos along Dunblane Street in Camperdown in Sydney's inner west.
Five people were arrested when protesters turned on an Asian police officer.
Forming a line, the police moved down Dunblane Street towards the protesters pushing them away from the consulate's gate.
A running brawl began along Dunblane Street and continued for several minutes before the protesters staged a sitdown when three more people were arrested.
Police urged the protesters to move on and requested that young children in the group be moved to the side of the road.
Women and children among the group wept during the negotiations.
People of all ages were involved including elderly women and young children.
Earlier four or five of the protesters scaled a three metre high perimeter wall at the consulate.
They remained in the grounds for several minutes before climbing back out to be met by the two NSW police officers.
Ten people were confirmed killed in the riots in Lhasa, China's official Xinhua news agency said today.
Lhasa erupted into violence yesterday as Tibetans staged demonstrations in the biggest challenge to China's rule of the remote Himalayan region since 1989.
China's top official in Tibet, a vast region formally annexed by China in 1951, said the protests were part of a "separatist" movement that authorities would not allow to succeed.
The Dalai Lama, Tibet's spiritual leader, called on China to "stop using force" and rejected allegations that he and his government-in-exile in neighbouring India were behind the uprising in Lhasa.
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