Police search door to door in Lhasa

(CNN) -- Live video showed scores of Chinese police searching door to door in a section of Lhasa Sunday as part of a crackdown following violent protests in the Tibetan capital that may have left as many as 100 dead.

Video provided live by CNN affiliate Hong Kong Cable showed armed police, dressed in riot gear, walking through Tai Yan Dao -- near the Potala Palace where the Dalai Lama lived before going into exile 49 years ago.

There was no sign of violence between the police or residents.

CNN International's live rebroadcast of the video was not, at least initially, blacked out by the Chinese government to viewers in that country.

The government sometimes exercises its power to censor CNN's broadcast of stories sensitive to China by interrupting the broadcast as it is fed into the country.

Live video from Lhasa has been rare, especially since anti-Chinese protests, sometimes violent, began in recent days.

The Hong Kong Cable camera appeared to be pointed out a window above the area being patrolled.

Tibetans and those who support their independence protested in several cities Saturday in India, Nepal and the Tibetan capital of Lhasa, where death tolls ranging from 10 to 100 were reported in the past 24 hours.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Saturday urged the Chinese government to exercise restraint in dealing with the demonstrations and told both sides to avoid violence.

Tibetan exiles in India cited unconfirmed reports that at least 100 people were killed and many more injured in violence that started when Chinese police blocked a march by monks in Lhasa on Friday. China's state-run Xinhua news agency, citing the Tibetan government, said 10 were killed.

"The victims are all innocent civilians, and they have been burnt to death," an official with the regional government told Xinhua.

Because of the extreme difficulties in getting news reports from Tibet, it was impossible to independently verify the death toll or the number of those injured.

Tibetan protesters have been clashing with police in several areas since March 10, the 49th anniversary of the Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule.

Rice said she was "concerned by reports of a sharply increased police and military presence in and around Lhasa."

"We call on the Chinese government to exercise restraint in dealing with these protests, and we strongly urge all sides to refrain from violence," she said.

"We urge China to respect the fundamental and universally recognized right of all of its citizens to peacefully express their political and religious views," Rice said in a written statement. "And we call on China to release monks and others who have been detained solely for the peaceful expression of their views."

In Kathmandu, Nepal, about 100 Tibetan exiles -- including monks, nuns and children -- began a hunger strike Saturday to protest the deaths of the demonstrators in Lhasa, a Free Tibet activist said.

"I do not know how long will be the hunger strike," said Thupten Tenzing Jamphel, a monk who is president of the Nepal-Tibetan Youth Volunteers for Free Tibet. "It was a spontaneous act and not an organized one."

At least 12 Tibetan refugees, including some monks, were arrested Saturday for obstructing traffic in front of the United Nations office in Kathmandu, police said.

"They were arrested because they were obstructing the road in front of the U.N. office," police spokesman Sushil Bar Singh Thapa said. "They will be released by evening."

However, Free Tibet activists put the number of those arrested at 48.

"Police hit those on hunger strike with batons and arrested them," Thupten Tenzing Jamphel said. Watch CCTV's images of the violence »

About 200 Tibetan exiles held a candlelight march at Kathmandu's most famous Buddhist stupa Friday evening, and another vigil is planned for Saturday evening, he said.

Tibetan exiles clashed with Nepalese police Friday as police tried to stop their rally, he said.

The Nepalese government, which recognizes Tibet as part of China, strictly controls anti-Chinese activities within the country.

In India's old Delhi, Tibetans gathered at the Jama Masjid, the area's principal mosque, the only site at which police were permitting them to congregate.

They hoped to hold another protest late Saturday, despite Indian police surrounding the Tibetan community in old Delhi on Friday, a spokesman for the Tibetan Youth Congress said.

Police arrested 61 people at that protest, including four who demonstrated at the Chinese embassy, said Youth Congress spokesman Komchok Yarphel.

Yarphel also said that protesters planned to restart a march from the northern Indian city of Dharmsala to the Tibet border that was forcibly stopped Thursday by Indian authorities. Those 100 protesters have been jailed for 14 days, but Yarphel said that another 100 will begin the march from Dehra, where the first attempt ended after only three days and 75 km.

Police have banned the march and are likely to stop it again.

The protesters planned to reach the border for a confrontation with Chinese authorities in time for the opening of the Beijing Olympics in August.

Dharmsala is home to the Tibetan exile government and the Dalai Lama.

The protests in Lhasa began Monday, when hundreds of monks rallied on the March 10 anniversary of the uprising, which forced the Dalai Lama into exile.

They turned violent late Friday, and police used gunfire and tear gas to quell the demonstrators, according to witnesses, human rights groups and Xinhua.

Protesters set fire to vehicles and shops, including a main market in the city -- Tromsikhang Market -- said Kate Saunders, a spokeswoman for the International Campaign for Tibet. The market has many Chinese traders, and she said Tibetans have been concerned about the influx of Chinese into the area.

There was no sign of Chinese police in the video broadcast by China's CCTV Saturday.

Chinese bloggers and U.S.-based human rights groups said Chinese security forces had sealed off the three main monasteries around Lhasa after the violence broke out. The bloggers also said police wearing armored vests were moving toward Lhasa in armored personnel carriers.

Tibet is one of two provinces in China, along with Xinjiang, where the Chinese government places restrictions on reporters' access. Government permission is required for foreign media to enter Tibet and Xinjiang, and CNN has not received permission to go in.

CNN reporting on Tibet was being blacked out Friday in mainland China. E-mail to a friend

CNN's Manesh Shrestha contributed to this report.

Copyright 2008 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.

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