NEW YORK, Oct 24 (Reuter) - Medics removed a Tibetan demonstrator from a 10-day hunger strike outside the United Nations and took her to hospital on Tuesday against her will.

A crowd of Tibetans protesting Chinese rule over their country shouted "Shame on China, shame on U.N." as the woman wearing an oxygen mask, one of six hunger strikers, was put on a stretcher and taken away in an ambulance.

Doctors said the 26-year-old hunger striker called Yiga was dehydrated and suffering from malnutrition, heart irregularities and "an altered mental state."

A Bellevue Hospital spokesman said she was in stable condition and had not been force-fed.

Yiga was immediately replaced by another Tibetan determined to continue the hunger strike until the United Nations recognises Tibet as an occupied country and grants the Dalai Lama, the country's spiritual leader, observer status.

China's People's Liberation Army took over Tibet in October 1950 and gained real control after a failed 1959 revolt. Buddhists dominated Tibet from the seventh century until 1959 when the Dalai Lama fled with many followers. Tibetans have called the hunger strike a "death chain," with a new hunger striker replacing any who dies or drops out.

Tashi Lhamo, 38, a mother of four from Boston, smiled as she joined the hunger strike, lying down on a row of matresses under a tent outside the U.N. headquarters where world leaders attended the last day of 50th anniversary ceremonies.

"Right now I want to die so that Tibet belongs to Tibet," she said. "I don't mind my life."