Chinese push and shove for last chance Games tickets

BEIJING (Reuters) - Unwashed, unfed and lacking sleep, tensof thousands of Chinese shouted, pushed and shoved for theirlast chance at Olympic tickets on a hot and smoggy Friday,threatening to break through barricades.

Ticket hopefuls and security officials screamed back andforth as tempers flared just two weeks before the Beijing Gamesbegin on August 8.

Loudspeakers blared over and over again, telling people toqueue patiently as minor scuffles broke out in the crowd andbetween reporters and police who struggled to keep order.

"We are doing everything we can to keep the situationcalm," a police spokesman told reporters, estimating the crowdat more than 40,000.

Even before dawn broke, some people tried to charge thegate, prompting a swift response from officials, witnessessaid.

Police were also removing people from the queue for beingtoo pushy and at least one man was detained.

Prospective buyers have been limited to two tickets at thesame competition, but officials have promised the last trancheholds tickets for events at every venue, if not every event.

Many want tickets for an event in the National Stadium,dubbed the Bird's Nest, or the Water Cube, the two showpiecestadiums that have changed Beijing's landscape.

One man surnamed Lei, from the eastern province of Anhui,was rewarded for his two-day wait in line with tickets to thefinal of the 110 m hurdles.

"I just feel so lucky to be able to see Liu Xiang run atthe Olympics," said Lei, 24, referring to the Chinese hero anddefending champion.

Wang Zongmao, 73, also queued for two days to securetickets to a diving event.

"It's been tough, it's very hot, but it's worth it toparticipate in the Olympics," Wang said.

Long queues had already formed by Wednesday afternoon, aday after Olympic organisers announced the final tranche of820,000 tickets would go on sale.

By Thursday, 10,000 people had formed a line snakinghundreds of metres away from the booth that opened on Friday,many hunkering down inside tents or under umbrellas to shelterfrom the 35 degree Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit) heat.

Police threw bottles of water into the crowd, dozens ofambulances stood by to come to the aid of those in line, andthe hundreds of police and paramilitary People's Armed Policeforces were also feeling the strain.

Tickets for the Games range in price from 5,000 yuan (369pounds) for the opening ceremony to just 30 yuan for thesoftball preliminaries.

Beijing's sale of the 7 million-plus Olympic tickets onoffer has been swift, but not without incident. Prospectivebuyers complained on blogs and chat-rooms of not being able tocomplete purchases after the third batch of tickets wasreleased in May.

The former Olympic ticketing chief was sacked last Novemberafter the ticketing website crashed on the opening day of thesecond round of sales.

Authorities are also going after scalpers. The Beijing Newssaid 44 had been detained, including one who had been selling50 yuan tickets for a basketball match for 5,000 yuan.

(Writing by Lindsay Beck; Editing by Nick Macfie)

(For more stories visit our multimedia website "Road toBeijing" at http://www.reuters.com/news/sports/2008olympics;and see our blog at http://blogs.reuters.com/china )