London
http://www.findinternettv.com/Video,item,267802727.aspx

France
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8o_AL7Fegc

PARIS, April 7 -- Protesters halted the Olympic torch relay in Paris Monday, forcing officials to extinguish the flame at least three times and carry it inside a bus for safety, despite a massive deployment of 3,000 police across the heart of the city.

The heavy security presence transformed the torch relay from a joyous celebration of the Olympics into a tense confrontation between police and demonstrators protesting China's crackdown on Tibet last month and its human rights record.

By late afternoon Paris time, with the relay hours behind schedule and facing continuous stops by protesters, officials gave up on finding a way to restart the procession. They said the torch would be carried by bus for the rest of the route, from the National Assembly building to the Stade de France sports complex, a distance of about 3.5 miles.

The decision was made by Olympic organizers and the Chinese Embassy, police in Paris said.

During the first part of the procession, athletes were surrounded by so much security they could barely run with the torch, and police scuffled with pro-Tibet demonstrators along much of the parade route.

Athletes carrying the torch were surrounded by cordons of Chinese security teams as well as French police on in-line skates. Police on horseback, bicycles and motorcycles filled the streets of the relay route, which was so crowded with police that it often was hard for spectators to see the torch passing. Black-suited divers patrolled the Seine, helicopters monitored the route overhead and emergency squads scrambled to strip a huge protest banner from the face of the Eiffel Tower.

"It doesn't even resemble a sport event," said Patrice LeClerc, 36, whose 8-year-old son complained that police vans blocked his view of the torch bearer even as he sat atop his father's shoulders.

About 20 minutes after an athlete carried the flame from the first platform of the Eiffel Tower and onto a street hugging the Seine, protesters reportedly forced the parade to a halt, according to French television and wire reports.

Authorities turned the flame low or extinguished it and put it inside a bus following just behind the athletes. It remained inside the bus about five or six minutes before an athlete in a wheelchair was allowed to continue the relay.

But the relay team struggled at a slow pace as it followed the banks of the Seine and looped back toward the Trocadero across the river from the Eiffel Tower, where pro-Tibet demonstrators pelted the torch bearer -- a wheelchair-bound ping pong player -- and his assistants with bottles of juice, fruit and other projectiles.

The flame appeared to go out as the athlete struggled through the melee and was forced once again to retreat with the torch to the safety of a bus. The torch went out at least two other times, although it was unclear whether protesters doused it or organizers put it out before boarding the bus.

The head of the Norwegian Olympic Committee suggested Monday that officials reconsider running the torch relay because of public protests.

"The International Olympic Committee may have a bigger problem when the torch relay continues, if we get more of these demonstrations," Tove Paule told public broadcaster NRK after a meeting with Olympic officials in Beijing. "One will have to look at whether the plans need to be changed."

The torch is scheduled to arrive on Wednesday in San Francisco, a city with a huge Chinese population, for its only U.S. stop.

Pressure has been mounting on the International Olympic Committee to respond to growing complaints from activists and politicians that China's behavior on a number of fronts is not compatible with the values enshrined in the Olympic charter.

Speaking at an opening ceremony for an IOC meeting in Beijing Monday, IOC President Jacques Rogge said: "I'm very concerned with the international situation and what's happening in Tibet. The torch relay has been targeted. The International Olympic Committee has expressed its serious concern and calls for a rapid peaceful resolution in Tibet."

Organizers of the Beijing Olympics also held a hastily-called news briefing Monday to "strongly condemn" the "separatists" who have disrupted the torch procession, but then tried to limit the briefing to just three questions. About five were asked.

"The torch relay has been well-welcomed by local people and its operation has been smooth," said Wang Hui, director of media and communications for the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games. She tried to emphasize positive aspects such as the involvement of the president of Kazakhstan as a torchbearer and the large crowds that braved snowy weather on Sunday in London to watch the torch pass.

"But it's a pity that a few Tibetan separatists want to disrupt and sabotage the torch relay," she said, referring to arrests of protesters at both the lighting ceremony in Greece and in London, where police arrested 37 protesters.

Chinese televisions showed none of Monday's footage from the chaotic Paris relay.

Athletes asked the IOC Monday to provide clear guidance on how much latitude they have to comment on Tibet and other issues before, during and after the Beijing Olympics.

Athletes, who are coming under increasing pressure to speak out on human rights issues, are banned from making political statements or gestures at Olympic ceremonies.