Olympics fans snap after 40-hour wait; police stop fights, battle crowds Impatient fans stormed Olympics ticket outlets yesterday in an attempt to snatch the last batch of tickets for next month's Games as police lost control of the situation and scuffled with crowds. The final 250,000 tickets for events in Beijing - including some of the most popular sports such as athletics, diving and gymnastics - went on sale at 9am, but tens of thousands of fans had been camping outside since Wednesday. Despite heavy security presence outside the 'Bird's Nest' stadium and 'Water Cube' aquatics centre, chaos broke out at about 4.30am when a 2,000-strong crowd tried to break through control barriers to get to the ticket counters after seeing lights go on in one of the windows. 'I was sleeping but got awakened by a loud cry,' said Sui Xu, an 18-year-old high school student. 'Then I saw people swarm and push ahead like waves. I had no idea what was going on but I ran with the crowds nonetheless - in order to keep my spot in the queue.' Public security officers were unable to contain the crowd, with panicked people screaming, shoving and scrambling their way ahead. Order was gradually resumed when armed police were sent in half an hour later. When tickets sales kicked off at 9am, layers of security forces tried to organise people into small groups, letting 40 people in at a time. But crowds were upset about the lack of organisation and basic information on where to line up and how to by tickets. Xinhua reported that 30,000 people lined up for tickets and some became impatient because of the hot weather and long wait. Some journalists were escorted away after going into areas that were off limits, it said. About 10.30am, scuffles broke out between Hong Kong journalists and police, who tried to stop the press from covering the chaotic scenes. Television footage showed several journalists being manhandled by police. South China Morning Post photographer Felix Wong Chi-keung was taken away by police for alleging kicking an officer, Xinhua said. He was released in the afternoon after expressing regret for inadvertently hurting the officer while he was being dragged away by police. Hong Kong Cable TV footage showed that dozens of people were dragged from the lines by police and a policeman put his arm around the neck of one of the broadcaster's reporters and pulled him to the ground. A police spokesman acknowledged it was 'chaotic and difficult' to maintain order. 'Demand was so high and too many people came at once so we ran into some security problems,' he said. Kevan Gosper, chairman of the International Olympic Committee's Press Commission, said the governing body would get tough with the Beijing organising committee if it felt special reporting measures implemented as promised last year were being compromised. 'Our press commission representatives say, particularly for the print media, things are moving smoothly. Bocog and the Chinese would be just as concerned if they believe they have been in breach of the new reporting [measures] as we would be if reporters are unable to do their job,' Mr Gosper said. Additional reporting Zhuang Pinghui and Peter Simpson