Tibet, a tourist mecca, closed to foreigners: tour operator

Tibet shut the door to foreign tourists Saturday following China's deadly crackdown on protesters opposed to Beijing's half-century rule of the mountainous region, a booming tourism mecca last

year.

Tour and hotel operators in China contacted by AFP said foreign visitors have left Tibet or have been barred from entering, while Chinese tanks and soldiers patrol the capital Lhasa after quashing protests that left 10 to possibly 100 people dead, according to various sources.

"There are tanks and armed soldiers on the streets. We have been told to stay in our rooms... the city is shut down," Wu Yongzhe, a tour organiser, said by phone.

"We do not have any more foreign clients," said an employee of a Lhasa hotel.

Similar reports came from by some tour operators in the southwest Chinese city of Chengdu, the usual point of departure for flights to Tibet.

"I can no longer arrange trips" to Tibet, said a hotel executive in Chengdu.