Famous flame set to ignite protest

Updated 21.25 Sat Apr 05 2008

Keywords: London, relay, torch, Olympic

The Olympic torch has arrived in Britain as protesters vowed to use a parade through London to highlight China's repression of Tibet.

The flame arrived on an Air China flight from St Petersburg in Russia at Heathrow, where the Chinese ambassador Fu Ying and Minister for the Olympics Tessa Jowell were waiting to greet officials from Beijing.

Britain's greatest Olympian Sir Steve Redgrave is due to begin a 31-mile relay around the capital with the torch on Sunday.

The rower, the only Briton to win five gold medals at consecutive Games, has urged pro-Tibet demonstrators not to use the event as a "cheap publicity stunt".

Tim Henman, Kevin Pietersen, Theo Walcott and Ellen McArthur are among the 80 torch-bearers due to carry the flame from Wembley Stadium via the site of the 2012 London Games in Stratford, east London to the O2 Dome in Greenwich.

Double Olympic champion Dame Kelly Holmes will complete the final leg of the relay by lighting the Olympic cauldron in front of 5,000 spectators.

But demonstrators will be out in force along the route, with 500 people from six pressure groups planning to use the occasion to attack the Chinese government's human rights record and its recent crackdown in Tibet.

The Metropolitan Police said they arrested three men and a woman, all in their 20s, on Saturday after they hung a protest banner reading: "One World, One Dream: Free Tibet 2008" from London's Westminster Bridge.