LONDON, April 6: Thousands of anti-China protesters draped in Tibetan flags disrupted the Olympic torch relay on Sunday through London, billed as a journey of harmony and peace.

Chinese officials in blue tracksuits and scores of British police on foot and bicycles encircled the celebrities and athletes carrying the flame but demonstrators repeatedly broke through their security cordon.

One man grabbed the torch in west London before police wrestled him to the ground.

Two protesters tried to douse the flame with a fire extinguisher and dozens hurled themselves into the path of the torchbearers.

China’s ambassador to London Fu Ying had been scheduled to carry the torch outside the Chinese embassy but she instead carried it through Chinatown, an area free of protesters.

The torch is en route to the 2008 Games that take place in Beijing from Aug 8 to 24. The next Summer Olympics are in London in 2012.—Reuters