A computer meltdown brought to a halt sales of tickets for the Beijing Olympics yesterday in the first big setback for organisers of the Games.

The computer system handling online bookings crashed after receiving more than eight million hits in its first hour on Tuesday.

Olympic organisers admitted that they had underestimated demand, installing a system with the capacity to handle one million hits and to process 150,000 tickets in an hour. Calls to the ticketing phone line exceeded 3.8 million in the first hour and many more people were unable to get through.

The failure of the system was not limited to internet miscalculations. Thousands of people had queued for hours outside a thousand branches of the Bank of China, where tickets were on sale. Xiao Hu, a student, said: “We didn’t dare leave, in case we lost our chance. The bank teller said the website was very slow.” Of the 1.85 million tickets that were available on Tuesday, only about 43,000 were sold.

Organisers called a halt to sales late on Tuesday. They planned to improve the ticketing database and make changes to the ticket sales policy, which was supposed to work on a first-come, first-served basis.

Rong Jun, head of the Beijing Olympic Organising Committee (Bocog) ticketing office, was forced into a humiliating public apology and promised that there would be no repeat of the debacle. He said: “We underestimated just how enthusiastic the Chinese general public are about the Olympics.” But the public was not so easily appeased. Internet chat rooms boiled with rage. One contributor wrote: “If you don’t have the capability then don’t play hi-tech. There has been so much propaganda about the sale of tickets and now it’s a humiliation. Apologies won’t help. Everyone in the ticketing centre should resign.”

Preparations for the Olympics, which will start on August 8, have won high praise from the International Olympic Committee. The notorious pollution of the Chinese capital had, until this week, been the only real source of concern for organisers.

The computer crash could serve as a wake-up call to officials. Seven million tickets are being sold for the Beijing Olympics, 75 per cent in China and the rest abroad. The first batch of 1.6 million went on offer from April in a process that was decided by lottery, thus avoiding any crush of demand.

How to get ringside seat

— Sportsworld Travel is acting as the official ticket agent for the British Olympic Association in the 2008 Beijing Games

— Tickets and packages can be purchased through its website at sportsworld.co.uk

— Customers choose an event then enter a ballot with monthly draws, the deadline for which is the 24th of each month

— Winners will be notified about two weeks after the draw, while unsuccessful customers can then reapply for other events. The website will list availability

— At £10,595, the gold package offers first-class accommodation for 18 nights, return airport transfers, a single-entry Chinese visa and access to Sportsworld staff

— What it doesn’t include, however, is flights or events. One day’s viewing of synchronised swimming, for example, costs £39.60

Sources: British Olympic Association; Sportsworld Travel

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