BEIJING, Dec 29, (AP) -- A bomb detonated by remote control exploded outside city offices in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa, injuring five people, state-run Radio Tibet said in a report monitored by the BBC.

Radio Tibet blamed supporters of the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.

Wednesday's blast was at least the fourth bombing in the restive Himalayan region this year, but the first to be confirmed by Chinese authorities, the London-based Tibet Information Network said.

Radio Tibet called the bombing a "serious counterrevolutionary political incident and an appalling act of terrorism."

The bomb exploded outside a city government office building in the early hours Wednesday, Radio Tibet said. The building is on a main shopping street near the old section of Lhasa, the report said.

The blast injured two night watchmen and three other people, thought to be shopkeepers living nearby, the report said. It seriously damaged two nearby hotels, the report said.

Unlike the other bombings, most of which employed crude road-blasting explosives, this device was detonated by remote control, the Tibet Information Network said.

Despite China's efforts to promote patriotism and discredit the Dalai Lama, most Tibetans remain loyal to the exiled leader and to the cause of independence.

The bombings and other acts of violence show some Tibetans are willing to defy the Dalai Lama's call for peaceful resistance to China's 46-year rule.

Earlier this week, Tibet Information Network reported that a Tibetan Buddhist monk using a homemade bomb had tried to blow up a Chinese shop on Jan. 13 to protest China's treatment of Tibet.

On Jan. 18, a bomb damaged the Lhasa house of a lama known as a pro-Chinese sympathizer. Another bomb exploded outside the main gate of the Communist Party headquarters on March 18.