China’s state-run media has said a Tibetan monk made up allegations that police shot another monk who set himself on fire to protest against Chinese rule in his homeland.

Activist groups reported police shot the monk when he protested in the flashpoint area of Aba in southwest China’s Sichuan province last week, and residents there contacted by AFP confirmed that they had heard guns fired.

But the Xinhua news agency issued a report on Thursday saying another monk had confessed to making up allegations about the police shooting, and cited residents saying they heard no firing.

“Jangkor, a monk at the Kirti Monastery in Aba County… said that he lied to ‘create greater disturbances so as to attract attention from overseas’,” Xinhua said, citing local police.

It also said the monk who tried to set himself alight, 24-year-old Tashi, had no bullet wounds and was recovering at a hospital in the provincial capital Chengdu.

The report gave no further details as to why Tashi, who like many Tibetans has only one name, had protested, other than to quote his mother saying he was “very silly”.

The incident has been one of the highest-profile protests in recent days amid high tensions ahead of next week’s 50th anniversary of a Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule.

Chinese security forces have locked down Tibet and areas of western China with Tibetan populations such as Aba, according to exiles and activist groups.

Foreign reporters are barred from visiting Tibet independently and police have blocked attempts to reach some of the flashpoint areas in western China.

Last year, the anniversary of the uprising saw violent unrest across the Tibetan plateau.

Tibetan exiles say more than 200 people died as security forces cracked down, although China denies this and accused “rioters” of being responsible for 21 deaths.

China has ruled Tibet since 1951, a year after sending in troops to “liberate” the Buddhist region.

China blames monk for spreading rumours over police shooting