Dalai Lama denies he says the Chinese may have killed 140 Tibetans this week

"The Chinese army again fired on a crowd on Monday August 18, in the Kham region in eastern Tibet," he told Le Monde. "One hundred and forty Tibetans are reported to have been killed, but the figure needs to be confirmed."

He said that since March, when China cracked down on protests against Chinese rule in the Himalayan territory, "reliable witnesses say that 400 people have been killed in the region of (Tibetan capital) Lhasa alone."

"Killed by bullets, even though they were protesting without weapons. Their bodies were never given back to their families," said the Tibetan spiritual leader who is in France for a 12-day visit.

"We would like to clarify that His Holiness did not mention any number of casualties," it said in a statement issued after Le Monde published an interview earlier Thursday.

"In response to a question from the journalist about recent news stating that Chinese troops had fired on a demonstration, His Holiness clearly stated that we had no specific information on the number of casualties.