Australian leg of torch relay begins, four held

Two members of the Chinese guards ran with the torch as it made its way along the route, but Australian Federal Police (AFP) officers initially appeared to be shepherding them as far away from the torch as possible, according to latest media reports in Melbourne.

There had been confusion over the attendants’ role in the run-up to the relay, with Prime Minister Kevin Rudd pledging that no Chinese personnel would be allowed to provide security and Olympic officials saying they would be on hand to act as “human shields” in the event of any trouble.

The AFP men later appeared to relent and allow the Chinese attendants to run alongside and assist with the handover of torch between the bearers.

There have been at least four arrests, including one man who was detained when he set fire to a Chinese flag.

Another protester was dragged aside by AFP officers a few hundred metres from Parliament House after he threw himself on the ground ahead of a torch-bearer.

Two pro-Tibet women charged the torch convoy as it neared Parliament House and were dragged away by police as one yelled: “They’re torturing my country”.

Thousands of Chinese supporters vastly outnumbered the pro-Tibetans, with Chinese flags dominating Reconciliation Place and the route of the relay.

Pro-China demonstrators waved flags and spelled out ‘OneChina’ in red on a lawn alongside the relay route. But security has not been as tight as it has been on international legs of the relay, with just a small number of AFP officers running alongside each bearer, media reports said.

Police were forced to intervene at the start of the relay when protesters on either side threw projectiles, including full water bottles, at each other.

As the torch started its journey in the hands of 2007 Young Australian of the Year Tania Major, the words ‘Free Tibet’ were written across the sky by a skywriting plane.

More than a thousand pro-Tibetan and pro-Chinese supporters gathered outside Australian Parliament. About 50 pro-China demonstrators followed them and tried to cover the Tibetans and their signs with large red Chinese flags.

Pandemonium broke out as the two groups yelled at each other until police intervened and ordered everyone behind the barricades.

Earlier, there was a traditional welcome to country ceremony and a cleansing and smoking ceremony from the local Aboriginal community.

Local Aboriginal elder Matilda House gave the traditional welcome to the relay.