BEIJING (Reuters) - Unwashed, unfed and lacking sleep, thousands of Chinese queued for their last chance at Olympic tickets on Friday, with police straining to hold back the crowds who threatened to break barricades.
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.
"I've been here for 48 hours. I think everyone should betired," said one man surnamed Wang.
Like many, he wanted tickets for an event in the NationalStadium, dubbed the Bird's Nest, or the National AquaticsCentre, known as the Water Cube, the two showpiece stadiumsthat have changed Beijing's landscape.
But between the intense heat and long wait, the crowdsapproaching 20,000 threatened to descend into chaos, withhundreds of police and paramilitary People's Armed Policeforces struggling to keep order.
"If you queue patiently, you will be able to buy Olympictickets that you will be satisfied with," a police officerbellowed through a loudspeaker.
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 formed a line snaking hundredsof metres away from the booth that opened at 9 a.m. local time(2:00 a.m. British time) on Friday, many hunkering down insidetents or under umbrellas to shelter from stifling 35 degreesCelsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit) temperature.
Tickets for the Games range in price from 5,000 yuan (337pounds) for the opening ceremony to just 30 yuan for thesoftball preliminaries.
Olympic authorities expect income of around $140 million(70.5 million pounds) from ticket sales, state media havereported.
Beijing's sale of the 7 million-odd Olympic tickets onoffer have been swift, but not without incident. Prospectivebuyers complained on blogs and Internet chat-rooms of not beingable to complete 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.
The Beijing Games start on August 8.
(Reporting by Ian Ransom; Editing by Lindsay Beck)