BEIJING: Thousands of people queued up overnight for their last chance to buy Olympic tickets as police battled hard to keep hopefuls under check amidst frayed tempers.
Ticket buyers shouted, pushed and shoved security personnel making repeated appeals to wait in the queue patiently for their turn as, at times, the crowd threatened to break through heavy police cordons.
A reporter from Hong Kongs South China Morning Post was whisked away by police after he broke through a barricade set up to control the crowds and kicked a police officer in the groin, official Xinhua news agency said quoting local authorities. The police officer was hospitalized, the agency said.
Olympic organizers announced on Tuesday that the final tranche of 8,20,000 tickets would go on sale, including 2,50,000 tickets to events that would be held in Beijing.
Crowds' impatience grew as they waited on a hot and smoggy day. The demand was for tickets to events to be held in the National Stadium or the "Birds Nest" and the water cube, two showpiece structures of the Beijing Olympics.
Organisers had stipulated that only two tickets per person would be available for purchase each time. Beijing police have detained 60 suspects for scalping Olympic tickets in the last two months, a police spokesman said.
The queue stretched for more than two km at the booth.
"The Olympics finally came to China. I cannot afford to miss the opportunity," 67-year old Wang, said. Xu Yongheng, the first in line, was said to have waited for almost 48 hours, Xinhua said. Amublances stood for emergencies.
The last phase of ticket sales was estimated to have attracted at least 50,000 people while the planned number of tickets to be sold today was 30,098.
