Chinese policeman killed in Tibetan unrest: Xinhua

BEIJING (Reuters) - A Chinese policeman has been shot dead while pursuing "an alleged riot leader" in an ethnically Tibetan part of western China, state media said on Wednesday.

The man, named as ethnic Tibetan officer Lama Cedain, died of his wounds on Monday morning, the official Xinhua news agency said, citing the public security authorities in the remote province of Qinghai, which borders Tibet.

It added that there had been a riot in Qinghai's Dari County incited by "a handful of people alleged to be insurgents seeking 'Tibetan independence'", following anti-Chinese protests in Lhasa in March.

"After a month-long investigation, the police moved on Monday to arrest the suspected leader. The suspect resisted arrest and gunfire broke out," the report said.

"The officer was killed in the gun battle ... and other officers returned fire, killing the suspect," it added.

China has blamed Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, and his government-in-exile for plotting the unrest, in which at least 18 "innocent civilians", according to Beijing, were killed by Tibetan mobs in the regional capital, Lhasa.

The unrest had led to protests at and disruption of the global torch relay for the Beijing Summer Olympics, most notably in London, Paris and San Francisco.

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Alex Richardson)