London, 28 Dec (TIN) A large explosive device went off in Lhasa in the early hours of 25th December, damaging neighbouring hotels and shaking buildings up to at least half a mile away, according to eyewitness accounts from the Tibetan capital.

The blast was later confirmed by a broadcast on Tibet Radio, monitored by the BBC Monitoring Service, which described the incident as "yet another counterrevolutionary bombing staged by the Dalai clique in Lhasa City", calling it "a serious counterrevolutionary political incident and an appalling act of terrorism."

It is the first time the authorities have admitted to a specific instance of sabotage or bombing in Tibet, and the scale of the blast would have made it impractical to conceal.

The bomb was detonated at just after 1.30 in the morning of Christmas Day outside the front gate of the offices of the Lhasa City Metropolitan District, called the Lasa Chengguanqu in Chinese. The Chengguanqu Offices are situated in a road called Dekyi Shar lam, the main shopping thoroughfare delineating the northern edge of the old city of Lhasa.

Five people are reported to have been injured by the blast, some of them seriously, and have been taken to hospital, according to unofficial reports. At least two of the injured were night-watchmen at the Chengguanqu office and the others are believed to have been Chinese shopkeepers living nearby.

The bomb, the third to go off in Lhasa this year, is much larger than any previous sabotage attempt and reportedly involved relatively sophisticated technical expertise. The bomb was detonated by a remote controlled device, according to a TIN source, making it unlike bombs based on road-blasting equipment, which are common in China and have been used in Tibet.

Almost all windows within a 100 metre radius are said to have been blown out and the Banakshol and the Gang-gyen Hotels, which face the Chengguangqu Office gates, are said to have been badly affected and may have suffered structural damage, according to initial but unconfirmed reports. A branch of the Bank of China, underneath the Gang-gyen Hotel, is said to have been badly damaged.

The blast was felt some distance away. "I was asleep in bed half a kilometre from the bomb but when it went off the walls of my room shook," said one Lhasa resident, who asked not to be named after being contacted by phone.

The bomb caused severe damage to the upper floor of the Chengguanqu offices, which administer the urban area of Lhasa and some neighbouring farming areas. Some sources claim that part of the building is also used as a base for covert operations in the city, and that these could have been the bombers' target. The story can not be confirmed, but tourists have reported seeing plainclothes agents gathering at the office gates before going out on patrol. The Headquarters of the Chengguanqu Public Security are situated immediately behind the Chengguanqu offices, and are unlikely to have been damaged by the blast.

Although police and a crowd of bystanders arrived on the scene within meetings there was little co-ordinated response by the security services for the first 12 hours, suggesting that the authorities were taken by surprise by the incident. Debris and broken glass had still not been cleared by midday on 25th December and vehicles were still able to leave the city unhindered that day. By the morning of 26th December vehicles were being stopped from leaving the city and at least six checkpoints had been established on the road to Shigatse, Tibet's second city.

All hotels were visited by police on 25th December and Tibetan guests were questioned, with particular interest being shown in exile Tibetans visiting from India, according to one report.

On the night of 25th-26th December, 18 hours after the blast, police and officials carried out house to house investigations throughout the old city or Tibetan quarter of Lhasa, reportedly asking all younger male residents where they had been at the time of the blast. The questioners also asked them what they thought of the bombing, and whether they expected similar incidents in the future.

At a high-level meeting in Lhasa on 27th December, apparently specially convened to rally support against the bombing, Tibetan cadres condemned the incident as an act of terrorism staged by "the Dalai clique", China's term for the exile Tibetan government based in northern India. The officials announced the beginning of a "campaign across Tibet to thoroughly expose and criticize the Dalai clique ... and strengthen preventive measures so as to keep the situation stable", according to Tibet Radio. The broadcast did not list any senior Chinese figures as attending the meeting, suggesting that Tibetan party members are being given prime responsibility for organising political support against the sabotage incidents.

The broadcast for the first time compared the bombing to terrorist incidents elsewhere in the world, which it noted are condemned by "all countries and ethnic groups across the world".

"It fully demonstrates that the Dalai clique has cast off its previously so-called peaceful disguise to openly oppose the people of Tibet and has reached a point when it puts up a last-ditch struggle," said the broadcast, quoting Gyatso, one of the executive vice-chairmen of the Tibet Autonomous Region.

The authorities attributed the blast to the "Dalai clique" although there is no evidence so far of any involvement by the exile government in such activities. A number of small splinter groups amongst the exile Tibetan community, as well as individuals inside Tibet, have shown interest in planning or training for sabotage or violent conflict. The severity of the incident will nevertheless damage claims by the Dalai Lama that his movement is non-violent.

Similar splinter groups tried to sabotage the 20th anniversary celebration of the founding of the Region in 1985, and to assassinate the then Party Secretary in 1986, but their attempts were unsuccessful. If staged by a Tibetan pro-independence group, the Christmas Day bombing suggests that Tibetan nationalists have succeeded in obtaining sufficient know-how and funding to stage a major incident probably for the first time since the ending of the guerilla war in 1974.

Two previous bombs have been set off in Lhasa this year, one on 18th March outside the headquarters of the Tibet Autonomous Region, which adjoins the Communist Party's Regional Headquarters, and the other on 18th January outside the home of Sengchen Lobsang Gyaltsen, a lama who has given prominent support to the Chinese authorities in the recent dispute over the Panchen Lama.