NEW DELHI — Police detained around three dozen Tibetan exiles protesting outside the Chinese Embassy in New Delhi to mark the anniversary of the failed uprising that sent the Dalai Lama into exile in India, a police official said Wednesday.

The protesters, wearing yellow T-shirts and waving red and blue Tibetan flags, chanted "Free Tibet" and "We want freedom," as they rushed toward the Chinese Embassy.

They were blocked by Indian police officers, dragged to a bus and taken to a nearby police station for questioning. A law prohibits more than four people from gathering in the area around the embassy.

"We don't have freedom in Tibet. Our brothers and sisters in Tibet are highly oppressed under the cruel Chinese rule," shouted Tenzin, a Tibetan activist who gave only his first name.

The protesters were likely to be released later Wednesday, said Rajender Singh, head constable at the police station where the Tibetans were detained.

The protest had been organized by the Tibetan Youth Congress.

China claims Tibet has always been part of its territory, but many Tibetans say the Himalayan region was virtually independent for centuries until Chinese troops invaded in the 1950s.

The Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, has lived in the northern Indian town of Dharmsala since fleeing Tibet following the failed 1959 uprising against Chinese rule.