Thousands of protesters waving Tibetan flags and shouting "Shame on China" disrupted the Olympic torch relay through London today, billed as a journey of harmony and peace.
Chinese officials in blue tracksuits and scores of British police officers encircled the celebrities and athletes parading the flame, but determined demonstrators repeatedly broke through their security cordon.
In scenes embarrassing for China and contrasting starkly with the Olympic spirit, police repeatedly tackled campaigners who hurled themselves into the path of the torch throughout its 31-mile (50-km) relay by foot, bike, boat and bus.
The intensity of the protests against China's crackdown in Tibet and its human rights record forced last-minute changes to the transport and route used for the lengthy relay.
One man grabbed the torch before police wrestled him to the ground. Two others tried to douse the flame with a fire extinguisher. Police arrested some 35 people.
The torch is on its way to the 2008 Games in Beijing from Aug. 8 to 24. The next Summer Olympics are in London in 2012.
Television personality Konnie Huq said she had been "a bit bashed about" when a man tried to rip the torch from her hands. "I was determined to hang on, it was all a bit of a shock," Huq told BBC Television.
Police were forced to rush the flame onto a double-decker bus in Fleet Street when about 100 protesters tried to seize it.
Flanked by police vans and officers running alongside, the bus crawled along to St Paul's Cathedral as spectators, who had expected to see the torch paraded on foot, looked on bemused.