Two Tibetan teenagers died after they set fire to themselves in protest at Chinese rule, reports and Western rights groups said, in a rare instance of a double self-immolation in the restive region.

The former primary school classmates were named as 18-year-old Sonam Dargye and a 17-year-old identified by US-based Radio Free Asia (RFA) only as Rinchen.

They died Tuesday in Aba prefecture, a Tibetan area of Sichuan province in southwestern China, RFA said, where a wave of the gruesome acts have occurred.

Stephanie Brigden, head of London-based campaign group Free Tibet, which also reported the deaths, said: "Tibet's children... face all the challenges of life under oppression, and are often full participants in the struggle to resist it."

The self-immolations followed the reported death Sunday of 49-yaer-old Namlha Tsering in the middle of a busy street in Xiahe county in the northwestern province of Gansu, RFA added.

On its website it showed a photograph of a man purported to be Namlha Tsering engulfed in flames, sitting in the road with his legs crossed as cars passed by.

Free Tibet said the man, who was also known as Hoba, left a wife and four sons.

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