No casualties have been reported among the foreigners in the riots that erupted in Lhasa on Friday, the Tibet regional government said on Saturday.

"We have not received any report that foreigners suffered injuries or death in the beating, smashing, looting and burning on Friday," an official with the foreign affairs office of the regional government told Xinhua.

The situation in Lhasa is calm on Saturday, after a violent day that saw windows smashed, shops robbed, mosque set on fire on Friday.

Witnesses said burnt cars, motorcycles and bicycles were scattered on the main streets, and the air tinged with smokes.

Power supply resumed in quarters along Duosenge Road, the worst hit area by the violence in downtown Lhasa. Local phone call service, however, could not be resumed for the moment as infrastructure of communications was destroyed in Friday's violence.

"We fired no gunshots," said Qiangba Puncog, chairman of the Tibet Autonomous Regional Government said told the press Saturday in Beijing, where he is attending the annual session of the National People's Congress.

He also denied the regional capital under the martial law.

Witnesses said violence broke out in Lhasa around 1:10 p.m. on Friday, as some people clashed with and stoned the local police around the Ramogia Monastery in the downtown area.

Some earlier media reports quoted unidentified local sources as saying that they had heard the sound of gunshots during the turmoil.

Qiangba Puncog called the unrest a "sabotage" activity organized and premeditated by the Dalai clique.

"We will severely deal with those who engage themselves in activities of splitting the nation in accordance with the law," he added.

(Xinhua News Agency March 15, 2008)