A group of about 20 Tibetans protesting the crackdown by Chinese officials in Tibet scaled the walls of the United Nations compound in Kathmandu, Nepal, Friday.

Tibetan exiles are detained at a protest against China outside the UN office in Kathmandu, Nepal, on Friday.
(Saurabh Das/Associated Press)

The protesters who made it inside the compound were not immediately detained, but waited in a conference room inside the building, a UN official told the Associated Press.

Around 100 other protesters demonstrated outside the compound. Police surrounded the area, arresting around 60 people.

Nepal has been under criticism for not allowing Tibetans to peacefully protest a crackdown on Tibetans in neighbouring China.

Thousands of Tibetan refugees live with relatives in Nepal or in camps funded by aid groups. Most of the refugees eventually move to India, where Tibet's government-in-exile and its spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, are based.

Chinese officials have blamed supporters of the Dalai Lama for riots that broke out earlier this month in Tibet. What began as peaceful protests by monks to mark the failed 1959 upraising against Chinese rule spiralled into violence.

Tibetans torched hundreds of buildings and attacked members of China's dominant Han ethnic group and Chinese Muslims known as Hui, who have dominated commerce in the city.

The government says at least 22 people have died in Lhasa; Tibetan rights groups say nearly 140 Tibetans were killed, including 19 in Gansu province.

Thousands of troops and police have been deployed to contain the unrest.

On Thursday, Tibetan monks disrupted a Chinese government-controlled visit of foreign reporters, shouting that they have no religious freedoms. The two-day visit marked the first time members of the foreign media had been allowed in Tibet since violence broke out.

With files from the Associated Press