BEIJING, March 25: A clash between protesters and police in a Tibetan area of western China killed at least two people, state media and a rights group said on Tuesday, as the country’s top police official called for stepped-up “patriotic campaigns” in monasteries to boost support for Beijing.

The demonstration in Garze, a prefecture in Sichuan province, started on Monday as a peaceful march by monks and nuns, but turned violent when armed police tried to suppress the crowd, which ballooned to about 200 after residents joined in, the Dharmsala, India-based Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy said.

China’s official Xinhua News Agency said the protesters attacked police with knives and stones, killing one policeman. The Tibetan rights group said an 18-year-old monk died and another was critically wounded after security agents fired live rounds into the gathering.

It was not immediately possible to confirm either claim. Officials who answered telephone calls on Tuesday at police and Government offices in Garze either denied anything had happened or said they had not heard of such reports.

Garze borders Tibet, where several days of anti-government protests led by monks spiraled into violence on March 14, in the capital, Lhasa. Demonstrations in support of the Lhasa protests have since burgeoned rapidly throughout provinces surrounding Tibet.

The unrest in Garze indicates that Tibetan defiance is still running strong a week after thousands of Chinese troops fanned out to patrol areas outside of Lhasa and clamp down on fresh protests.

The uprising is the broadest and most sustained against Chinese rule in almost two decades, and the Communist leadership has accused Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, and his supporters of masterminding the dissent. The government says at least 22 people have died in Lhasa while Tibetan rights groups say nearly 140 Tibetans were killed, including 19 in Gansu province.

Meng Jianzhu, the minister of public security, ordered Tibet’s security forces to remain on alert for further unrest and said “patriotic education” campaigns would be strengthened in monasteries, according to the Tibet Daily newspaper.

“The Dalai clique refuses to give up their evil designs, and even in their death throes are planning new acts of sabotage,” Meng was quoted as saying Monday during a visit to Lhasa, referring to the Dalai Lama and his supporters.

Meng was the first high-level central government official to visit since protests began in the Tibetan capital on March 10, the anniversary of a failed uprising against Chinese rule.

In Aba, another Sichuan county, Xinhua said 381 people involvedin protests had surrendered to police as of Monday.