Tibetans stage wee-hour protests as torch arrives

Tibetan refugees greeted the Olympic torch in New Delhi with wee-hour protests as scores of them staged two demonstrations, including one in front of the hotel where the flame is reportedly kept.

About 40 Tibetan refugees were detained from near Le Meridian hotel, where the torch is reportedly kept, and Dhaula Kuan early morning after they blocked roads and staged protests against the Chinese 'atrocities' in their homeland.

Soon after the Olympic torch touched down at the airport, around 30 Tibetans emerged near the hotel on Janpath, half-a-kilometre from Rajpath, the designated route for the torch relay, at around 3:30 am and started shouting anti-China slogans.

Dressed in yellow jackets with an inscription 'Free Tibet', some of the protesters shouted slogans like 'Justice for Tibet' and 'We Want freedom' and tried to break the security cordon.

Security personnel, deployed in large numbers, prevented their attempt and detained about half-a-dozen among them.

The police immediately removed the protesters from the road and placed some of them under detention, a senior police official said.

Earlier at around 1 am, 32 Tibetans blocked the road through which the vehicle carrying the torch was to pass near Army Research and Referral hospital in Dhaula Kuan.

The incident took place minutes before the special aircraft carrying the torch landed at the airport at 1:10 am, the official said, adding all the 32 protestors were placed under detention.