Pro-Tibet protests during China visit to Salzburg

(VIENNA) - About a hundred exiled Tibetans and members of the Falun Gong spiritual movement on Tuesday staged a protest against visiting Chinese President Hu Jintao in Salzburg.

Demonstrators demanding a "free Tibet" and decrying "the absence of religious freedom" were contained by a heavy security presence in the city where Hu visited at the end of a two-day trip to Austria, prior to attending the G20 summit in Cannes, France, on Thursday and Friday.

The president and his wife Liu Yongqing took a cruise on Wolfgangsee lake before attending a Mozart concert.

Several demonstrations were planned during the state visit, with pro-Tibetans denouncing a Chinese crackdown in the territory.

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

The Falun Gong movement is banned in China.