Dozens of Tibetans have been detained for trying to protest against the Olympic torch procession in the Indian capital.

Demonstrators from the largest community of exiled Tibetans in the world had vowed to disrupt its passage through New Delhi but 15,000 police kept them at bay, making arrests before the start of the relay.

Apart from some flag-waving Chinese and a few dozen school children bussed in by officials there were almost no crowds. The route had already shortened because of protest fears and the city's streets were lined with barriers and wire meshing.

Around 70 sportsmen and celebrities including Bollywood film stars jogged along streets on a roughly 1.9 mile (3km) route. Surrounded by security guards in tracksuits, police and troops with automatic rifles, runners could only wave to TV cameras.

The torch, which is en route to China for the Games in Beijing, arrived in a plane before dawn and was met by protests across India, where thousands of Tibetans marched with golden Buddhist prayer lamps.

A few hours before the relay, thousands of Tibetans marched through the capital in a parallel relay to demand Tibet's independence and protest against Chinese policies in their homeland, in particular its crackdown last month on unrest.

"China's torch is a flame of shame," read one of their banners.

In the mainly Buddhist region of Ladakh in India's Himalayas, thousands of people, including monks clad in traditional red robes, marched to show solidarity with Tibetan protesters.

In the northern town of Dharamsala, home to the Tibetan government-in-exile, some 1,500 Tibetans shouting "Free Tibet" marched and shops closed in solidarity.

In the financial hub of Mumbai, Tibetan protesters shouted slogans and waved Tibetan flags near Chinese consulate offices. Police had detained at least a dozen by Thursday morning.

The torch has been beset by protests through Europe and the Americas, over Chinese rule in Tibet. In some places, protesters tried to snuff out the flame and organisers extinguished or hid the torch to keep it safe.

India has been a centre of regular protests for weeks and exiles even scaled the walls of the Chinese embassy.

Office workers struggled to get home, with many streets in the centre closed to traffic. One large school near the Chinese embassy has warned parents of the dangers of tear gas from police wafting into classrooms if there are protests.

Several metro stations in the capital were also closed.

The Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, has voiced his support for the Beijing Games. He has urged Tibetans to desist from disrupting the torch relay.

And the Indian government has been reluctant to criticise China over Tibet, despite some public support for the exiles as well as criticism in the media of the country's soft line.

© Independent Television News Limited 2008. All rights reserved.