And here’s an assortment of pictures that will give you a good sense of what we saw and experienced:
UPDATE, 02:32: The torch has been extinguished a third time.
UPDATE 2, 02:48: This raw video of the protest just in from AP:
UPDATE 3, 02:50: BBC videos here and here (unfortunately non-embeddable)
UPDATE 4, 02:53: French report from BFM TV
UPDATE 5, 02:57: Report by CNN
UPDATE 5, 02:59: Video from paskanoi shows pro-China demonstrators are out in full force too
UPDATE 6, 03:02: Another report by BFM TV (in French)
UPDATE 6, 03:07: France24 reports the Olympic flame extinguished several times and forced to travel by bus
UPDATE 7, 03:26: In a related development elsewhere, pro-Tibetan protestors have scaled the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. The Olympic torch is scheduled to be in SF this Wednesday. Our sister blog SFist live-blogs the incident. Also check out KPIX’s live cam for what’s going on right now.
UPDATE 8, 09:27: Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Jiang Yu has said early this morning that “foreign media reports saying the Olympic torch was forced to be extinguished during the relay in Paris were FALSE“:
The modes of the relay in Paris were temporarily changed to safeguard the security and dignity of the Olympic torch under the circumstances there, Jiang said in a statement released by the ministry.
“The reports by foreign media are false in claiming that the Olympic torch was forced to be extinguished during its relay in Paris,” said Jiang.
The torch relay in Paris has now safely completed as scheduled, she said.
Thank goodness for Xinhua being a beacon of truth in this world full of lies!
UPDATE 9, 09:35: Video of anti-Chinese protestor being led away by police from VNQuehuong1:
UPDATE 10, 09:37: Video report from Al-Jazeera’s Tim Friend
