Chinese police claim to have found firearms hidden throughout a Tibetan temple in an ethnic Tibetan area of southwestern China which has been the scene of anti-Chinese riots in recent weeks, state television said.
And Chinese police detained five air passengers, possibly Tibetans, whose "suspicious remarks" prompted the return of their flight half an hour after take-off from the southern city of Shenzhen, a newspaper reported.
Police, responding to what they said was a tip-off from the public, found 30 firearms in the monastery in Aba prefecture of Sichuan province last month, state television said in a report, a transcript of which was posted on its website.
"At the time these firearms were scattered around, some were where the monks keep the scriptures," policeman Lan Bo told the programme. "They were modified semi-automatic weapons."
Aba has seen confrontations between police and Tibetan protesters who, along with Tibetans in Tibet, have been protesting against China's rule and calling for the return of the exiled Buddhist leader, the Dalai Lama.
Protesters have also disrupted the global torch relay for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, but the torch passed through Tanzania's commercial capital of Dar Es Salaam peacefully yesterday.
China's ambassador to Ireland walked out on a speech on Saturday in which Minister for the Environment John Gormley accused China of human rights abuses in Tibet.
China has tightened security of its airways ahead of the Olympics and says it foiled a plot last month by Muslim Uighur separatists to blow up a plane.
The
Southern Metropolis Dailysaid today police detained five passengers whose remarks prompted the return of their flight after take-off in the southern boomtown of Shenzhen en route to Chengdu, capital of Sichuan.
The five talked in a language "others could not understand", the newspaper said.
China has accused the Dalai Lama of orchestrating the violence in Tibet and other Tibetan areas of the country. But the Dalai Lama has rejected the accusations, speaking out against the use of violence, calling for talks with China and backing the Beijing Olympics.