Olympic torch faces new threat: jubilant throngs

Reuters - Friday, May 9 06:51 am

HONG KONG (Reuters) - China may yet have to beef up security for the Olympic torch after a new threat emerged during the flame's domestic relay-- jubilant crowds.

Thousands of fired-up flag-waving onlookers broke through a police line in Shenzhen on Thursday and poured into the torch's path, briefly delaying the parade, an official involved in the relay said.

Shenzhen had mobilised some 15,000 police officers, or 80 percent of the city's force, to ensure the torch run went smoothly as a separate torch headed up to the top of Mount Everest, watched live on television by a proud nation.

"The crowd was so enthusiastic, things got too crowded," the official, who declined to be named, said on Friday. A Reuters photographer said he saw the crowd surge past the police line.

An online report said the torch guardians were forced to extinguish the flame and wait for police to restore order, but the official said he could not confirm that because he was not at the scene. Shenzhen police declined to comment.

During the international leg of the relay, the Olympic torch became a target of anti-China protests, with demonstrators trying to grab it, throw water at it or lie in its path. In Seoul, two people tried to light themselves on fire in front of it.

In Shenzhen, the crowd was cleared and the relay was back on track within a few minutes, the official said. A similar disruption had happened in the city of Guangzhou a day earlier, he added.

Hong Kong's South China Morning Post quoted a website and witnesses as saying protesters trying to grab the torch were wrestled to the ground in Shenzhen, but the official said he had not received any reports of an incident.

The torch is scheduled to travel through every Chinese province and major municipality, ending its long relay in Beijing at the start of the games on August 8.

(Reporting by John Ruwitch and Bobby Yip; Editing by Valerie Lee)

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