Five Tibetans died while detained in China following a protest last week where the police shot and gassed demonstrators, the exiled Tibetan government said.

The Chinese news media have yet to confirm the deaths of the Tibetans, as police and government officials have refused to comment on the matter when other news agencies repeatedly called on Wednesday.

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In a statement released Wednesday by the Tibetan government in exile in Dharamsala, India, it said that five Tibetan protesters died after being taken into Chinese police custody following an altercation at Sichuan Province.

Among the detainees was Lo Palsang, who reportedly took his own life while in the Luoxu Township detention.

Furthermore, according to reports, there was another Tibetan youth, 22, who "succumbed to injuries sustained during the police firing."

In a statement released by Dharamsala officer Tsering Wangchuk, he said detaining officers told residents that the news of the two dead detainees was correct.

Following the confirmation, the exiled Tibetan government affirmed that three more detainees who suffered severe injuries also died in detention

"It is not known when they died, but their bodies were handed over to their families on Monday," according to the exiled government.

The reports added that Chinese authorities refused to treat the detainees who were injured in the demonstration.

The protest took place in an area in Sichuan known as Kardze or Gardze, where residents have been protesting the Chinese government's rule.

The Gardze residents have assembled to demand the release of a Tibetan Shugpa leader who has been taken into custody after complaining "against the mistreatment and harassment of Tibetans by the Chinese authorities," according to the Tibetan administration's website.

China's western Sichuan Province connects China to Tibet Autonomous Region and is mostly populated by Tibetans who are demanding to live free of the Chinese government's rule.

A source who refused to be named told the International Campaign for Tibet that the men in the village either fled or were detained, and that majority of those who were left in the village are women, children and elderly.

According to reports, majority of Tibetans who commits suicide are from the Sichuan area.

TagsTibet, protesters