Chinese push and shove for last Games tickets

By Ian Ransom

BEIJING (Reuters) - Unwashed, unfed and lacking sleep, tens of thousands of Chinese shouted, pushed and shoved for their last chance at Olympic tickets on a hot and smoggy Friday, threatening to break through heavy police cordons.

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

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

Hong Kong television showed police shoving reporters as they tried to clear an area near the ticket booths.

Police detained a photographer from the South China Morning Post, the Hong Kong-based newspaper said, and destroyed reporters' cameras and equipment.

"The Hong Kong reporter, surnamed Wong, did not obey police orders and broke through temporary barricades to take photos," Xinhua news agency quoted an unnamed spokesman from the Beijing municipal government information office as saying.

Wong had kicked a police officer in the groin, Xinhua said, citing the spokesman.

A reporter at the newspaper said Wong had been released unharmed.