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The deployment of armed paramilitary and riot police, as well as the closure of roads to through traffic early this week followed the violence in Lhasa late last week. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
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CHENGDU (China) - TIGHT security in China's southwestern city of Chengdu was concentrated on Tibetan neighbourhoods on Thursday amid tensions caused by days of unrest in other parts of the country.
Riot police in helmets and armed paramilitary soldiers patrolled streets in the predominantly Tibetan neighbourhood around Wuhouci, a Chinese temple in the Jinli Recreation Area of the sprawling city.
Wide streets lined with shops selling Tibetan products, as well as Tibetan restaurants and cafes, were sealed to traffic, with busloads of riot police stationed at most corners.
Riot police in blue uniforms patrolled on motorbikes, and khaki-uniformed paramilitary soldiers, some with sub-machineguns, stood at intersections across the small neighbourhood near the centre of Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province which borders Tibet.
The atmosphere was tense, with few people on the streets and most shops and restaurants empty. Security in the area is normally high, residents said, because of the presence of a large police station there.
But the deployment of armed paramilitary and riot police, as well as the closure of roads to through traffic early this week followed the violence in Lhasa late last week that has since spilled over into other Tibetan areas.
A Tibetan man, described by police as drunk, attacked a Chinese man, and possibly a boy aged around 10, on the street with a knife in the area on Tuesday, police and witnesses told AFP.
That incident appears to have heightened tensions across the city.
By Wednesday Chengdu residents were repeating rumours that two Chinese doctors had been stabbed to death in a Chengdu hospital by a Tibetan. Other rumours suggested knife attacks on Chinese elsewhere in the city but none could be verified.
Sections of Sichuan, Gansu, Qinghai and Yunnan provinces formed part of Tibet before China sent troops in to 'liberate' the region in 1950 and the borders were subsequently redrawn.
Chengdu is a popular point from which to travel into Tibetan regions, including what is now known as the Tibet Autonomous Region, the capital of which is Lhasa. -- AFP
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