29 Jul 2008

Beijing Games first to be sold out

6:00 am on 29 July 2008

All tickets to Olympic events in Beijing have been sold, putting the Games on course to be the first to ever sell out.

A total of 6.8 million tickets were available for domestic and foreign sale, although tickets that went to sponsors and national Olympic Committees may not all get used.

When the final batch of 250,000 tickets were released in Beijing on Friday, police were hard pressed to prevent a stampede among people who had stood in line up for to two days.

Games organisers said 58 percent of the tickets cost $17 or less, making them affordable for average Chinese citizens.