Torch Relay Cancelled

The first international Paralympics torch relay, which was to have included a stop in London, is to be called off over fears that it would be targeted by anti-Chinese groups and violence could flare again.

The progress of the Olympic torch through London on 6 April was disrupted by Free Tibet protesters and required a heavy police presence that cost the taxpayer £750,000 and led to controversy over the role of the blue-and-white track-suited Chinese flame attendants, whom London 2012 chairman Sebastian Coe described as 'thugs'.

Beijing officials held talks at the end of last month with representatives from the British Paralympic Association and the Greater London Authority and all were confident that the torch would visit the capital on 31 August, the second city of an international tour that would also have included Vancouver, Canada and Sochi, Russia, the host cities for the 2010 and 2014 Winter Olympics respectively.

It had been intended to be a much more low-key affair than the Olympic torch relay, which traveled more than 30 miles across London from Wembley Stadium to the O2 Arena, perhaps progressing down the River Thames. But the Chinese government has had a late change of heart and has decided that they do want not a repeat of the protests that also flared in Paris and San Francisco and the bad publicity that accompanied it. An official announcement is expected to be made by the International Paralympic Committee later this week.