Reuters

Torch runs the gauntlet

Updated 23.33 Sun Apr 06 2008

Keywords: olympic flame, olympic torch, tibet, olympic games

The Olympic torch has made it to the O2 Dome in London after running a gauntlet of pro-Tibet demonstrators.

Police said they arrested 36 people for public order offences after the flame's progress from Wembley Stadium to the Dome in Greenwich, southeast London, was dogged by protesters.

Chinese Ambassador Fu Ying's place in the relay was changed and she carried the flame through Chinatown instead, where there was loud support for the relay

More than 2,000 police officers were drafted in to protect the flame while a string of celebrities carried it through London en route to Beijing, where the Games will begin in August.

There were angry exchanges between activists carrying 'Free Tibet' banners and flags of the Himalayan region and rivals flying the red flag of communist China.

Fu Ying, the Chinese Ambassador to London, was scheduled to carry the torch through Bloomsbury Square where a number of protesters had gathered.

But her place in the relay was changed and she carried the flame through Chinatown instead, where there was loud support for the relay.

TV presenter Konni Huq almost had the torch snatched from her when a protester burst through the circle of Chinese officials ringing her and made a grab for it.

The man was bundled away and the former Blue Peter presenter was unhurt.

She said: "I expected there to be protesters. I wasn't expecting to be wrestled, but I guess people feel very, very strongly about China and their human rights record.

"We are lucky we are in a nation where people are allowed to voice their opinion."

Minutes later, another protester appeared to let off a fire extinguisher as the flame was passed between two torchbearers. He was soon wrestled to the ground and led away by police.

Britain's greatest-ever Olympian Sir Steve Redgrave began the 31-mile procession and the flame was passed to 79 others including Denise Lewis, who was greeted outside Downing Street by Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

Yachtswoman Dame Ellen MacArthur took the torch across the Thames in a boat to the Dome.

Olympics minister Tessa Jowell insisted the London leg of the torch relay does not mean Britain supports China's repressive policies in Tibet.

She said: "It is absolutely not an endorsement of the Chinese government or any of the aspects of the Chinese government that in this country we find completely unacceptable.

"This is an an endorsement of the Olympics, what the Olympics mean to athletics, to sport around the world, the principles that the Olympics stand for."