Olympic flame leaves for Bangkok

Immediately after its hiccup-free run along Rajpath, the Beijing Olympic torch left for the airport on Thursday to catch a flight to Bangkok which hosts the next leg of the run on Saturday.

Soon after the relay culminated with the tennis duo of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi lighting the cauldron at India Gate, the flame was taken in a lantern and security personnel, including Chinese torch attendants, started for the airport to catch the flight.

"The flame leaves for Bangkok tonight and from there it would go to Kuala Lumpur which hosts the relay on April 21," an IOA official said, even though he did not disclose the timing of the flight for security reasons.