China has cancelled the international leg of the Paralympic torch relay, which was due to pass through London, in an apparent attempt to avoid similar protests to those that dogged the Olympic torch’s global tour.

Organisers of the Beijing Olympics said that the decision was made because of the earthquake in the southwestern province of Sichuan on May 12, which killed almost 70,000 people and left five million homeless. But Chinese officials are also anxious to prevent a repeat of the demonstrations held after a crackdown on anti-China protests in Tibet in March.

The Paralympics will be held from September 6 to 17 and the first international part of its torch relay was scheduled to begin at around the same time as the start of the Olympics on August 8. It was due to pass through the host cities of the next three winter and summer Olympics — Vancouver, London and the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi — as well as Hong Kong.

The Chinese announcement said: “Due to the devastating May 12 earthquake that struck China, [organisers] decided to modify arrangements for the Paralympic torch relay under the principle of ‘safe, simple and effective’.”

Olympic organisers have also left Chengdu, Chongqing, Tianjin and Urumqi out of the 16-stop domestic torch relay. Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan, and the city of Chongqing were affected by the earthquake. Urumqi is the capital of the northwestern region of Xinjiang, which is home to a Muslim separatist movement.

The International Paralympic Committee said that the decision had been made to allow “the Chinese Government to focus on the rescue and relief work and show support for the people affected by the earthquake”.

A spokesman for ParalympicsGB told The Times: “We are disappointed that the torch will no longer visit London as it would have been a great opportunity to raise the profile of the Paralympic movement in the UK.”

The decision came after a warning from the International Olympic Committee about politically charged comments made by Chinese officials in Tibet last week. China has accused the Dalai Lama, the exiled spiritual leader of Tibet, of masterminding the anti-China protests in March to try to undermine the Olympics and split Tibet from China.

At a ceremony to mark the end of the torch relay in Lhasa, Zhang Qingli, the Communist Party chief of Tibet, vowed to “smash the splittist schemes of the Dalai Lama clique”.

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