The international leg of London’s Olympic torch relay in 2012 is in doubt after violent protests turned the global tour into an embarrassing spectacle.

As the flame left Paris for San Francisco yesterday after a second day of disruption, the Olympic movement was left to analyse what had gone wrong during an event supposed to promote harmony and peace.

The Beijing torch was extinguished three times in Paris as thousands of human rights protesters turned the relay into a rout, forcing it to end its shortened journey on a bus.

The debacle followed serious clashes between police and pro-Tibet demonstrators during the 31-mile London leg on Sunday that left organisers determined to learn the lessons of a logistical and public relations disaster.

It emerged last night that even Lord Coe, chairman of the London Organising Committee for the 2012 games, had been manhandled by the ring of Chinese “bodyguards” protecting the torch on its journey through London. “They tried to push me out of the way three times,” Lord Coe had said, according to Channel 4 News. “They are horrible. They did not speak English . . . I think they were thugs.”

One option for 2012 would be to abandon the international relay, which has become increasingly elaborate since organisers of the Sydney Games in 2000 broke with tradition to take it outside the host country.

Since the Australians sent the torch to outer space on the US Space Shuttle Atlantis and under water at the Great Barrier Reef, organisers have engaged in an exercise of oneupmanship.

The Greeks circumnavigated the globe. The Chinese, organising the longest torch relay, will take it to the summit of Everest. Chinese officials may rethink plans for the rest of the torch’s 21-city international tour after a frantic and vain battle by 3,000 French police to force it along its 18-mile route in central Paris.

A phalanx of gendarmes on skates, jogging firemen and rows of riot police were unable to keep the path open for the stop-start relay. About a dozen people were detained, including Mireille Ferri, a Green vice-president of the Paris region, who was carrying a fire extinguisher.

Protest did not come only from militants but also from mainstream politicians, including about 40 MPs of left and right who demonstrated with banners outside parliament. Bertrand Delanoë, the Mayor of Paris and a Socialist, cancelled a ceremony to receive the torch because Chinese officials objected to a banner hung from City Hall.

Beleaguered Chinese organisers gave up and put the torch on a bus for its final leg to the Charlety stadium.The chaos was an embarrassment for the French police, who pride themselves on their skills in crowd control. Their officers had boasted of creating an impenetrable 200m “security bubble” around the torch.

Rights activists claimed a spectacular success. Thupten Gyatsoce, leader of the Tibetan community, said: “We are overjoyed. We are making ourselves heard politically, thanks to the support of artists, politicians and intellectuals.”

Beijing organisers condemned the London protests as disgusting. Sun Weide, a spokesman for the Beijing Olympic organising committee, said: “The act of defiance from this small group of people is not popular. It will definitely be criticised by people who love peace and adore the Olympic spirit. Their attempt is doomed to failure.”

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