LONDON (AP) — Police repeatedly scuffled with protesters as Olympians and celebrities carried the Olympic torch through snowy London during a chaotic relay yesterday.
Demonstrators tried to board a relay bus after five-time Olympic gold medalist rower Steve Redgrave began the procession at Wembley Stadium — presaging several clashes with police along the torch’s 31-mile journey.
Metropolitan Police reported 25 arrests.
In West London, a protester tried to grab the torch out of the hands of a children’s television presenter, forcing police to stop the procession while officers detained the man. Another demonstrator tried to snuff out the flame with what appeared to be a fire extinguisher. Others in the crowd threw themselves at torchbearers running in official Beijing 2010 Olympics tracksuits.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown briefly greeted the torch when it arrived outside his Downing Street residence as pro-Tibet demonstrators and police clashed yards away near Britain’s Parliament buildings.
Demonstrators swelled in number near the spot where Chinese Ambassador Fu Ying had been expected to carry the Olympic torch, forcing a last-minute change of plan. Ms. Fu emerged with the flame in the heart of London’s Chinatown instead, and managed to jog unhindered before handing the torch to the next participant in the relay.
Some reports said Ms. Fu had pulled out of the relay, and the Chinese Embassy refused to confirm her place until the last moment.
In London’s historic Bloomsbury area, police separated anti-China protesters from hundreds of flag-waving Chinese who turned out to support their nation and the Olympics.
“As an English person, I have a right to stand where I want to on the street,” pro-Tibet demonstrator Roger Moulland, 54, from Brighton, said as he was moved away by police.
Hundreds of protesters along the route chanted slogans including “Free Tibet,” “Stop killing in Tibet” and “China, talk to Dalai Lama.”
“There was definitely a bit of an edge,” British tennis player Tim Henman, one of the torchbearers, told the Associated Press.
Police Cmdr. Jo Kaye called the incidents minor. “It’s going to be a long day, but the torch is progressing on schedule,” Cmdr. Kaye told British Broadcasting Corp. television.
Opponents of China’s human rights record and crackdown on Tibet have been protesting along the torch route since the start of the flame’s 85,000-mile odyssey from Ancient Olympia in Greece to Beijing, host of the 2008 Summer Olympics.
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