Paris: The head of the Tibetan community in Paris hailed today's protests against the Olympic torch relay as a "great success" but the French Olympic committee chief condemned them as "highly regrettable."

"We are overjoyed," Thupten Gyatso told AFP as he stood among hundreds of pro-Tibet protestors in Human Rights Square in Paris.

"We are making ourselves heard politically, thanks to the support of artists, politicians and intellectuals."

The comments came as pro-Tibetan protestors clashed with police and twice forced athletes carrying the torch on the Paris leg of its world tour to extinguish the flame and take refuge on a bus.

The head of the French Olympic committee attacked the protests as "highly regrettable."

"I think that people should have let this flame through, that they could have held their protests to one side," said Henri Serandour.

"Everyone has a right to express themselves but to stop it passing shows a lack of respect for the basic freedom of our athletes to carry this flame, which is a message of peace to the whole world."

Source : PTI