Student tries to douse Olympic flame

A high school student tried to put out the Sydney Olympic Games torch with a fire extinguisher on Thursday as it passed through the northern New South Wales town of Maclean.

Police said the 17-year-old youth stepped out of a crowd watching the torch relay into the path of the runner and pulled out a small fire extinguisher from under his coat.

He aimed it at the torch but succeeded only in spraying the runner and bystanders, with the flame remaining untouched.

The Sydney Telegraph newspaper said the student wanted to make a political statement by his action.

"He told us he wanted to make a statement about how the Olympics were now about money and not about sport," the newspaper quoted a friend of the student as saying.

"The guy is a goose."

The teenager was briefly arrested before being released into his parents' custody while police considered whether to lay charges.

It was the second attempt to disrupt the months-long torch relay which is being carried by more than 10,000 runners in a journey from Greece through Australia to Sydney where it will be used to light the Olympic cauldron on September 15, the opening day of the games.

In the other incident last month, a teenager unsuccessfully tried to grab the torch from the official runner.

Sydney Games organisers said they saw no reason to review security arrangement for the torch relay.

"Both incidents were over and done with in seconds," a spokeswoman said.