Australian police arrested eight ­Tibetan protesters who stormed the Chinese consulate in Sydney on Wednesday, including one person who scaled a flagpole to pull down Chinese national flag.

The group of around 50 ­Tibetan students and former ­prisoners were holding a ­scheduled peaceful protest outside the ­consulate's gates to protest the death in prison last week of a ­Tibetan monk.

When the gates opened to let a truck through, several of the ­protesters ran into the fore court, said Tenzin Deky, one of the members of the group.

Eight of the protesters were charged with trespass, a spokes­person for New South Wales state police said.

One of those eight, a 38-year-old woman, was also charged with ­common assault after allegedly ­assaulting a consular official.

The group was protesting the death in jail in China last week of Tenzin Delek Rinpoche, 65.

The Xinhua News Agency reported that the monk, who had been ­serving a life sentence for "crimes of ­terror and incitement of ­separatism," had suffered a heart attack after ­often refusing to see doctors or take ­medicine at the Dazhu County People's ­Hospital in Southwest China's ­Sichuan Province.