Police detained at least 50 Tibetans on Wednesday for protesting in front of the Chinese embassy, hours before the Olympic torch was to arrive in the Indian capital, witnesses said. Thousands of policemen were being deployed to guard the torch relay route in the face of threats by Tibetan exiles to disrupt the run on Thursday. India has already trimmed the route due to protest fears. On Wednesday, about 100 Tibetan youths wearing “Save Tibet” bandanas and T-shirts used spray paints to write anti-China slogans on pavements and the road in front of the Chinese embassy in New Delhi. Policemen quickly broke up the protest, dragging the demonstrators to waiting vans, a Reuters photographer said. “We managed to catch and detain most of them,” Anup Kalia, a police officer, said. Security around the Chinese embassy was increased last month after a group of Tibetan protesters scaled its compound wall. The Dalai Lama, based in the northern Indian hills, has urged Tibetans to desist from disrupting the torch relay, but protests, sparked by last month's unrest in Tibet, have continued. India has assured China of adequate security for the torch. Indian media reported that besides clipping the relay route to a third of the original 9-km (5 miles), authorities in New Delhi were also shutting offices around the venue of the torch run. __
