Two young Tibetan men set fire to themselves in the centre of Lhasa, the capital of China's Tibet Autonomous Region, reports said on Monday.

Police smothered the flames and took away the two men minutes after their protest on Sunday afternoon outside Lhasa's Jokhang temple, one of the holiest sites for Tibetan Buddhists, US-based Radio Free Asia and China's official Xinhua news agency reported.

"Some who tried to go close to the site were also detained and taken away while mobile phones of those who were close to the site were confiscated," Radio Free Asia quoted a witness as saying.

Xinhua quoted local officials as saying one of the men died and the other suffered serious injuries.

It named them as Dargye from the restive Ngaba Tibetan area of China's Sichuan province, and Tobgye Tseten from Xiahe county in neighbouring Gansu province.

The Chinese government has tightened security in most Tibetan areas this year after an escalation of anti-government protests and more than 30 self-immolations, many of them by monks.

Source: Voice of Russia (VOR) http://english.ruvr.ru/2012_05_28/76223903/