Hundreds of Tibetans have protested in southwestern China on the communist-led country's National Day.

News reports issued Sunday said the protests began after a Tibetan flag and a picture of Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, were removed in Seda, a town in Sichuan province.

The demonstrations Saturday came on China's National Day, which celebrates the day the Communist Party took control in China.

Tensions have bristled in the area since a protest in March and the later disappearance of about 300 monks who witnesses said were rounded up by authorities and taken to undisclosed locations. Beijing acknowledged the disappearances in June, saying the detained monks were undergoing “legal education.”

Last week, two Tibetan monks set themselves on fire, in an apparent anti-Beijing protest at a monastery in southwestern China where a young Tibetan Buddhist died after self-immolating earlier this year.