HONG KONG — Security forces opened fire on Tibetan protesters in western China on Monday, wounding at least 32 people and killing at least one of them in the largest violent confrontation in ethnic Tibetan areas of China since 2008, two Tibetan rights groups and the Tibetan exile government said.

Free Tibet, a group based in London, said tensions remained high into the evening after the shootings in Luhuo, which is located in westernmost Sichuan province, near the border with Tibet.