Sandwiched between a highway and a maze of narrow alleys along the banks of New Delhi’s filthy Yamuna River, the cramped confines of the Tibetan  Reception Centre are a sanctuary for  Dolma Palkyi, 16, and her exhausted  fellow travellers.

The cement apartment building looks cold and unwelcoming under a slate grey sky in the Indian capital, but it is here that the teenager and 40 other Tibetans feel a sense of safety after their gruelling and deadly flight from western China.

Weary from a 36-hour bus ride from Kathmandu, the travellers recently recounted to the South China Morning Post the drama of their flight across the 5,700-metre Nangpa La Pass between Nepal and Tibet on September 30, during which Chinese patrolmen opened fire on the unarmed group, claiming the life of at least one nun, Kelsang Namtso, 17, and sparking an international outcry.

The mainland’s foreign ministry announced the death of a second victim, a 23-year-old male, days later in a hospital, stating that he had died from an “oxygen shortage”.

Human rights groups reject the claim and say he died from gunshot wounds sustained on the day of the shooting. The incident was caught on videotape and still cameras by western tourists.

Beijing has since claimed its border guards clashed with people attempting to leave the country illegally and were forced to fire in self defence.

Tenzin Norgay, a spokesman for the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy, which is based in the northern Indian city of Dharamsala, said: “This has been going on for a long time and we have been talking about this for a long time. But today China cannot escape it. The bubble that they created has burst.”

The plight of the 41 rural Tibetan refugees brings to light the hardships suffered by the estimated 2,500 to 4,000 Tibetans who try to reach India every year via Nepal, paying smugglers to bring them to India because obtaining the necessary travel permits and a passport are almost impossible.

In India they can speak about Tibetan culture and autonomy, which is a dangerous affair inside China.

But their first priority is, almost universally, gaining an audience with the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism, the Dalai Lama, whose residence, along with that of Tibet’s government-in-exile, is in Dharamsala.

“Our aim only is to get the blessing of His Holiness the Dalai Lama,” said Tenzin Wangmo, a 24-year-old nun, explaining why she embarked on the journey.

The US and the European Union, which held an EU-China dialogue on human rights in Beijing late last month, have each condemned the shooting.

But so far it is Canada that has delivered the harshest rebuke, when on October 18 Canada’s Foreign Minister Peter MacKay expressed his “abhorrence and dismay for this terrible incident that happened at the border”, adding that “Canada strongly condemns this act of violence against unarmed civilians.” and this act as “an egregious violation of human rights.”

Norgay of the Tibetan Centre wondered whether this would lead to different governments pressuring China to improve its human rights record. “I fear it might be another event come and gone. Public memory is very short.”