Nepal stops Tibetans from storming China mission

KATHMANDU (Reuters) - Nepali police detained about 100 Tibetans who tried to storm a Chinese consular office in Kathmandu on Thursday, breaking up the latest protest by the refugees demanding independence of their homeland.

Police said the 100 protesters, including two German citizens, would be released later on Thursday.

Monks and nuns came in buses and threw pamphlets reading "Tibet is not a part of China".

Waving Tibetan flags, protesters lay in the road near the Chinese visa office, many shouting "We want free Tibet" and "China, thief, leave the country".

They were then picked up by police, hauled into trucks and taken to detention centres.

At least 10,000 refugees have so far been held and later freed in Nepal since they began demonstrating against the Chinese crackdown on protests in Lhasa and other areas in March.

More than 20,000 Tibetans still live in Nepal since fleeing their homes after a failed uprising against Beijing in 1959.

Officials say they are free to live in Nepal but are barred from organising any anti-China protests.

China provides Nepal with significant amount of development aid and is an important trade partner.