FRANCE: Olympic torch relay regularly ground to a halt in Paris as protesters threatened to break through the security cordon around the athletes carrying the flame

Record ID: 766066

  • Title: FRANCE: Olympic torch relay regularly ground to a halt in Paris as protesters threatened to break through the security cordon around the athletes carrying the flame
  • Date: 8th April 2008
  • Summary: (W3) PARIS, FRANCE (APRIL 7, 2008) (REUTERS) WOMAN BEING HELD IN THE AIR, WAVING CHINESE FLAG AND SMILING PROTESTERS PUSHING EACH OTHER / ENTERING TUG-OF-WAR WITH FLAGS POLICE OFFICER TRYING TO CALM FEMALE PROTESTER MAN CARRYING CHINESE FLAG MORE OF PROTESTERS CONFRONTING EACH OTHER
  • Embargoed: 23rd April 2008 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: France
  • Country: France
  • Topics: International Relations,Sports
  • Reuters ID: LVA33G3D8OIGZL07KZ198LJ4ECMZ
  • Story Text: The Olympic torch relay became a debacle as it passed through Paris on Monday (April 7), with organisers forced to carry the flame by bus after pro-Tibet protesters tried to seize it and officials had to extinguish it.
    The Paris torch relay hit trouble almost as soon as it set off from the Eiffel Tower, carried by former world 400 metres hurdles champion Stephane Diagana who was the first of 80 torch bearers.
    It was then repeatedly halted by protesters who threatened to break through the imposing security cordon around athletes carrying the flame.
    France deployed more than 3,000 police forces along the 28-km (17 miles) Paris route.
    The torch was extinguished because of a technical problem, French police said. A Chinese official was quoted by Xinhua news agency as saying it was put out for safety reasons.
    Chinese authorities condemned as "vile" the growing campaign by activists to use the build-up to the Beijing Olympics as a stage on which to condemn China's record in Tibet, on human rights in general and in its foreign policy.
    Members of the Paris-based organisation, Reporters Without Borders, scaled the Eiffel Tower and succeeded in unfurling a 4-metre-wide banner from the lower level, which called attention to the recent violence in Tibet.
    An Asian man who protested in the middle of the famous Champs-Elysees in the heart of Paris was tackled to the ground by police and was carried away by local authorities, kicking and shouting.
    Embarrassed Chinese organisers cancelled a reception for the torch at Paris city hall at the last minute after a banner supporting human rights was hung from the facade while another banner reading "No torch in Tibet" was hung from a Paris bridge.
    Members of parliament, mainly from opposition parties, also organised demonstrations and police used special buses to take those who were arrested away. At least 23 people were briefly detained by police, a spokesman for the Free Tibet movement said.
    More than four hours after setting out on its trip, officials finally decided to put the flame on a bus and sped down to the final leg of the relay -- a stadium in southern Paris which houses the French Olympic Committee.
    It was a second consecutive day of chaos for the torch run.
    The Olympic flame is expected to remain a magnet for anti-Chinese protests ahead of the August Games in Beijing.
    The flame is due to return to Beijing on Aug. 6, two days before it will be used to light the cauldron at the Olympic opening ceremony.
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