Olympic Torch lit off in Paris

French security officials have been forced to cut short the Paris leg of the Olympic torch relay following anti-Chinese protests along the route. The torch was extinguished three times due to the protests before being taken on a bus to the relay's end point.

The cancellation comes after 37 people were arrested in London as protesters disrupted the torch relay on Sunday. The Olympic flame is being carried through 20 countries before arriving for the Beijing Games in August. The torch relay started to go wrong almost from the start, despite the presence of 3,000 police along the route, riding motorcycles, jogging or on skates.

A member of the French Green party was restrained by police after attempting to grab the torch from the first of Paris's 80 torch bearers, former world 400 metres hurdles champion Stephane Diagana, Reuters news agency said.

Nothing's happening as it was meant to," Mr Diagana told French TV. "It's a shame. It's sad because of what this symbol represents but it can be explained by the context we're aware of.Police were forced three times to put out the torch and carried it onto a bus, as police cleared protesters from the route. On the second occasion, the flame was being relayed out of a Paris traffic tunnel by an athlete in a wheelchair when it was taken onto a bus because protesters booed and began chanting "Tibet", the Associated Press (AP) reported.

The flame itself has been kept alight the whole time in a safety lantern. Later, Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoe cancelled a ceremony to mark the torch relay as Green party activists hung a Tibetan flag and a black banner depicting the Olympic rings as handcuffs from the Hotel de Ville (city hall). Activists have hung Tibetan flags or the black banners from several Paris landmarks including the Eiffel Tower, the city hall (Hotel de Ville) and Notre Dame cathedral.

Several hundred protesters have been involved in the demonstrations, near the Eiffel Tower and along the torch's zig-zag route through Paris to a stadium in the south of the city. Finally, after several delays, security officials decided to put the torch on a bus to take it to Stade Charlety. Speaking in Beijing earlier, IOC President Jacques Rogge said he was concerned over both the recent unrest in Paris and the torch protests. "The International Olympic Committee has expressed its serious concern and calls for a rapid peaceful resolution in Tibet," Mr Rogge said. He condemned the attempts to disrupt the torch relay, saying violent protests, "for whatever reason," are "not compatible with the values of the torch relay or the Olympic Games".

China said the protests during London's Sunday torch relay were the work of "a few Tibetan separatists" attempting "to sabotage" the event, AP reported. London's relay saw protesters trying to douse and even snatch the Olympic flame as athletes and celebrities carried it through the city. The demonstrations have been sparked by China's security crackdown in Tibet following a series of protests against Chinese rule which swept the region last month.

Tibetan exile groups say Chinese security forces killed dozens of protesters. Beijing says about 19 people were killed in rioting. The torch was lit in Olympia, Greece, on 24 March and will go through 20 countries before being carried into the opening ceremony at the Beijing Games on 8 August.