By Zhang Hui

Local authorities yesterday denied a US media report claiming that three Tibetans set themselves on fire Friday at Seda county, Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province.

Wang Yongkang, secretary of Seda county's Party committee, told the Global Times yesterday that there were no incidents of self-immolation this weekend.

"Everything is all right here, although we still have no Internet access," said Wang, who said there had been rumors saying some Tibetans were going to set themselves on fire, but "it has not happened."

Zhang Yang, from the publicity department of the Party committee of Sichuan Province, told the Global Times that he has not heard of any self-immolation incidents over this weekend.

The US-based Free Asia reported on Sunday that three Tibetans set themselves on fire at a place far from the main Seda county town Friday, near the border with Sichuan's neighboring Qing hai Province.

The report said one of the three has died, and the other two were seriously injured.

Tibetan-populated counties in Sichuan Province including Seda have witnessed a series of incidents of unrest since late January this year, which authorities claim were plotted by Tibetan separatist forces.

On the day of Spring Festival, January 23, a mob spread rumors that three monks had immolated themselves in a protest which incited hundreds of local residents and monks to attack government office buildings and police stations in Luhuo, another county in Ganzi.