Dalai Lama aides deny death toll figures
Updated
The Dalai Lama's office has denied he mentioned any specific death toll from an alleged mass killing this week in Tibet.
China correspondent, Stephen McDonell reports in an official statement from the Dalai Lama's representatives in France, the Tibetan spiritual leader has denied saying that 140 people might have been killed by Chinese troops this week.
The French newspaper Le Monde, reported that in an interview, he said Chinese soldiers opened fire on Tibetans four days ago and though the death toll needed to be confirmed, he heard 140 people were killed.
Now his office is denying he mentioned any figure at all.
The statement says, "his Holiness clearly stated the we had no specific information on the number of casualties".
It goes on to say that efforts have been made, without success, to contact people in the remote area where the conflict is said to have happened.
