Tibetan protesters to stage London vigil

LONDON (Reuters) - Tibetan protesters will start a hunger strike outside the Chinese Embassy in London, campaigners said on Monday.

Hundreds of demonstrators are expected outside the embassy later on Monday afternoon, to coincide with the deadline imposed by China for those involved in last week's violent clashes in Tibet to hand themselves into authorities.

While Chinese officials claim just over a dozen people have died since Friday's protests, exiled representatives of Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala, India, put the protest death toll closer to 80.

A spokeswoman for the London-based Free Tibet campaign, Alice Speller, said the rally would include a minute's silence and a hunger strike.

A spokesman for the Chinese embassy in London said in a statement that officials had shown "extreme restraint in the process without using any destructive weapons".

(Reporting by Andrew Hough. Editing by Stephen Addison)