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SAN FRANCISCO : The US leg of the Olympics torch relay became bogged down in confusion on Wednesday as thousands of pro- and anti-Chinese supporters faced off and briefly forced the symbol of the Beijing Games off the streets.
Scuffles broke out even before the flame was lit, and just seconds after it was handed to the first runner, both the athlete and the torch disappeared through a security cordon into a dockside warehouse.
After nearly an hour, the torch reappeared and began its route through the city amid heavy security, designed to avoid the kind of chaos seen in the earlier relays in London and Paris.
San Francisco organisers, who had already trimmed down the route scrapping proposed stops at the Golden Gate Bridge and Chinatown, were again forced to shorten the relay on Wednesday.
"People are blocking the street so we have to shorten the route," a police official, who would not be quoted by name, told AFP.
Policemen on bicycles and motorbikes lined the parade route, while police choppers hovered above the crowds and US Coast Guard vessels guarded the inlet. Two police officers were even patrolling the waters on jet skis.
Police said in a statement that there had been no arrests, although an AFP photographer witnessed one young male pro-Tibet protester being arrested earlier after a noisy stand-off with pro-China supporters.
And a Chinese-born US citizen sparked angry scenes when he attempted to unfurl a Tibetan flag just yards away from the starting point.
Xiao Tan, a 32-year-old medical student from Stanford University, was pushed and shoved by furious pro-Chinese supporters who attempted to rip the flag from his hands while smothering him with their own banners.
"I'm here because although I'm a proud Chinese and I don't like what's happening in Tibet," Xiao told AFP while being jostled.
The flame's 9.6-kilometre parade through San Francisco, which began about 1:20 pm (2020 GMT), is the only stop the torch will make in the United States.
"I think what happened in London and Paris didn't help their cause. They got in the way of the message," the city's mayor Gavin Newsom told reporters at China Basin, the waterfront starting point for the relay.
"I encourage people to protest honourably and respectfully. Going after a torch bearer in a wheel chair, I have no respect for."
Pro-Tibet campaigners have shadowed the flame from the moment it was lit in Greece on March 24, starting its 20-country, 137,000-kilometre journey from to Beijing for the August Olympic Games.
Ahead of the torch lighting in San Francisco, about 150 pro-Tibet protesters faced off with an equal throng of China supporters.
Rows of police officers stood between the groups with orders to keep them apart. A wall of large Chinese flags rose from the China crowd which chanted "China" as whistles blew and drums were banged.
On the other side of the police cordon, Tibetan flags flew and placards urged Beijing to free the Himalayan region it has ruled since 1950.
The International Olympic Committee has said it will continue to review the progress of the relay.
IOC President Jacques Rogge, speaking privately to top IOC officials ahead of a two-day executive board meeting in Beijing starting on Thursday, said demonstrations should not be allowed to derail the relay.
Thomas Bach, the IOC vice president from Germany, said the show must go on. "To stop it now would be a victory for violence," he said.
But British Prime Minister Gordon Brown will not attend the opening ceremony, Downing Street said on Wednesday, adding he had never intended to do so.
"He's never been going to the Olympic opening ceremony. We have always said he's going to the closing ceremony," a spokeswoman for his office told AFP.
Chinese officials have reacted strongly to the idea of stifling their effort to stage the most ambitious Olympic torch relay ever.
"The disruption and sabotage of the torch relay is a challenge to the spirit of the Olympic charter, the world laws, and peace-loving people around the world," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said.
After San Francisco, the torch heads to Buenos Aires on Thursday and Friday, and 12 more countries before arriving in China in early May. - AFP/de
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