LONDON — Demonstrators grabbed at the Olympic torch, blocked its path and tried to snuff out its flame Sunday in raucous protests of China’s human-rights record during a chaotic relay through London.
The biggest protests since last month’s torch-lighting in Greece tarnished China’s hope for a harmonious prelude to a Summer Games celebrating its rise as a global power. Instead, the flame’s 85,000-mile journey from Greece to Beijing has become a stage for activists decrying China’s crackdown on Tibetans and support for Sudan despite civilian deaths in Darfur.
Demonstrators attempted to board the bus trailing the torch shortly after British five- time gold-medal rower Steve Redgrave started the relay at Wembley Stadium.
Less than an hour later, a protester slipped through a tight police cordon and gripped the torch before he was arrested.
Another demonstrator tried to snuff the flame with a spray of powder from a fire extinguisher, police said. Still others threw themselves in the torch’s path. They were tackled or dragged off by police. Authorities said 37 people were arrested.
London’s Metropolitan police said about 2,000 officers tried to keep the procession under control. The torch made it unscathed to the O2 Arena in Greenwich after more than seven fraught hours.
“There was definitely a bit of an edge,” said British tennis player Tim Henman, one of the torchbearers.
