Kathmandu Foreign climbers described the horror of watching Chinese guards shoot at a group of Tibetans high in the Himalayas, killing at least one of them.
Three climbers from Britain and Australia told Reuters on Tuesday that they witnessed the incident on September 30 in Chinese territory, close to Nangpa La, a mountain pass in the Mount Everest region.
At least 10 Tibetan children were also taken into custody by Chinese authorities, one climber said.
''We felt a bit shocked and upset because we came to climb the mountain and here we are watching people being shot,'' said British climber Steve Lawes, who was at the advance base camp on Cho-Oyu at 8,201 metres, the world's sixth highest mountain.
The area is about 20 km west of Mount Everest. There has been no official Chinese comment about the incident.
Lawes, who returned to Nepal's capital Kathmandu at the weekend, said the Chinese guards took aim at a group of about 20 or 30 people in dark clothing as they prepared to cross the icy pass into Nepal.
''I heard two single shots, I assume those were the warning shots,'' he said. ''There were two more shots quite widely spaced."
''I saw one person fall. A little later that person got up and went to another 15 metres and maybe there was one or two (more) shots. I think the same person fell.''
Another British climber, 44-year-old Steve Marsh, said the victim was the last one in the line.
An Australian climber who declined to be named said: ''I looked through the telescope. I saw two objects - the first one looked like it was a backpack and the second one was definitely a body.''
The body was lying at the glacier for almost 28 hours before the Chinese soldiers took it away, 42-year-old Lawes from Bristol said.
''I was disgusted that the body was left there for so long.''
Tibetan refugee groups, as well as the London-based International Campaign for Tibet, said a young nun was killed in the incident, and a young boy may also have died.
Lawes said soon after the shooting at least 10 Tibetan children, aged between six and 12, walked through the climbers' base camp in single file. They were escorted by three soldiers and taken to the nearby Chinese camp.
''It was upsetting because we assume they were part of the same group and had been left behind in the shooting,'' Lawes said.
Hundreds of Tibetans cross the Himalayas every year to Nepal, many making their way to Dharmasala, a town in northern India where their exiled leader, the Dalai Lama, has been living since 1959 after an abortive uprising against Chinese rule.
Nepal is home to more than 20,000 Tibetan refugees, but recent arrivals are not allowed to stay in Nepal and must travel to neighbouring India.
Communist troops entered Tibet in 1950 and overthrew the Buddhist theocracy.
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