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Indian leg of Olympic relay ends
17/04/2008 14:47 - (SA)
New Delhi - The Indian leg of the global Olympic torch relay ended on Thursday after a short run along a central New Delhi avenue guarded by thousands of police and soldiers, AFP reporters said.
The scaled-back 2.3km run passed off smoothly, with an estimated 16 000 police and soldiers having thrown up a huge security cordon around the avenue between the presidential palace to India Gate, two of New Delhi's main landmarks.
Participants in the relay were flanked and guided by track-suited Chinese security guards, and running barely a few metres each. The relay lasted little more than 30 minutes.
The security personnel by far outnumbered the groups of schoolboys and other select onlookers allowed into the relay zone.
180 arrests
Police in New Delhi said they had arrested around 180 Tibetan demonstrators during the day.
"We have around 170 to 180 people in custody," a senior police official told AFP.
Tibetan activist groups gave a similar figure on the number of demonstrators taken by police during the day. They said those arrested included a group of around 70 protesters who tried to make a run for the area where the torch relay began.
An additional 46 Tibetans were also arrested in India's financial capital Mumbai on Thursday as they tried to storm the Chinese consulate, police in the city said.
Protests have taken place across India, which is home to at least 100 000 Tibetan refugees including exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama.
- AFP
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