By Jim Christie and Amanda Beck
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The Olympic torch's only stop in North America turned into the mystery of the missing flame on Wednesday, as San Francisco abruptly changed the torch route, angering both China supporters and protesters who had waited hours to see it.
Thousands of people converged along the announced scenic waterfront route for the passage of the torch. But shortly after a brief opening ceremony, the first runner, flanked by tall, blue-clad Chinese security officials, disappeared into a large waterfront warehouse.
"I think we were cheated, because I think the meaning of the relay was to show the whole world that our country is hosting the Olympics," said Michael Huo, 30, a Chinese engineer working at a Silicon Valley start-up company.
The torch was a magnet for chaotic demonstrations in London and Paris in the last week over a range of China issues from China's crackdown on Tibet last month to human rights. Beijing, embarrassed as it prepares to host the Olympics, has strongly condemned the protests.
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom told Reuters that the route had to be radically changed at the last minute or the event canceled to ensure public safety.
"We assessed the situation and felt that we could not secure the torch and protect the protesters and supporters to the degree that we wished," Newsom said by cell phone. "As a consequence we engaged in subsequent contingency planning that we felt would keep people safe."
The bewildering changes united supporters and protesters divided by politics by angering both sides over the sudden change during the only relay leg in North America on its journey to the Beijing Olympic Games in August.
"I think it's cowardly. If they can't run the torch through the city, it means that no one is supporting the games," said Matt Helmenstine, 30, a California high school teacher who carried a Tibetan flag.
After the torch disappeared from view after the opening ceremony, police boats and jet skis hinted it might be headed up the waterfront by boat. But an hour after the scheduled start, the torch appeared on a major, less scenic north-south street more than two miles away.
"Where it will end up, nobody knows," said all-news radio station KCBS.
A planned closing ceremony on the waterfront was also scrapped.
TENSIONS IN THE CITY
San Francisco has a large Chinese-American population and many had waited proudly to see the torch relay. But before the start of the torch run tensions mounted amid confrontations with anti-China protesters.
At least one pro-Tibetan demonstrator was detained.
In front of the city's ferry building, Christine Lias, 30, was quickly surrounded by more than 30 Chinese-Americans after she yelled: "Free Tibet now!"
"Liar, liar, shame on you," many in the group shouted.
On a beautiful spring day, San Francisco deployed hundreds of security officers, including FBI agents, backed up by police cars with flashing lights, harbor boats, jet skis and helicopters.
Thousands of pro-China spectators gathered along the original planned route, many flying the five-star Communist Chinese flag alongside U.S. and Olympic flags.
"In 5,000 years of Olympic history the Chinese can finally have one time hosting the Olympics. It means that China is becoming a world power," said Don Zheng, 41, a Chinese-American computer engineer who emigrated in 1988.
Many Chinese Americans are proud that their ancestral home is hosting the global sporting event and resent the protests.
"I'm loyal to the U.S. but I love China because it's my motherland," said Alice Liu, 50, who came to the United States after the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests.
DELICATE DIPLOMACY
The torch relays have attracted many groups unhappy about a range of China-related issues, including Tibet, its human rights record and policies on Sudan's Darfur region. Critics say China should use more of its clout with Sudan to ease the bloody conflict in Darfur.
China blames Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, and his associates for orchestrating monk-led protests in Tibet last month as part of a campaign for independence. The Dalai Lama denies this.
Hours before the San Francisco torch relay, President George W. Bush urged China to open a dialogue with the Dalai Lama. Bush and other Western leaders are facing a delicate balancing act as calls mount for them to boycott the Olympics opening ceremony.
Olympics chief Jacques Rogge told the Wall Street Journal that reports the International Olympic Committee executive board would consider scrapping the torch relay outside China, to avoid more ugly scenes, were "based on a misunderstanding."
(Take a look at the Countdown to Beijing blog at http:blogs.reuters.com/china)
(Writing by Adam Tanner; additional reporting by Duncan Martell, Robert Galbraith, Erin Siegal and Philipp Gollner in San Francisco, Richard Cowan in Washington, Guo Shipeng and Nick Mulvenney in Beijing, Lucy Hornby in Xiahe, and John Ruwitch in Hong Kong; Editing by Frances Kerry and Eric Walsh)
Pro-Tibet protesters gathered ahead of the Olympic torch relay in San Francisco on April 9, 2008.
The Olympic torch relay in San Francisco, California, began today at 1:00 p.m. PDT (UTC-7). It was the only stop for the torch in the United States, as it makes its way around the world to Beijing, China, for the 2008 Summer Olympics.

The route for the torch was materially altered as protesters filled the streets along the planned route. The route, which was originally 10 kilometres long, was shortened by nearly half, according to the San Francisco Police Department. In hopes that all eighty of the scheduled torch carriers would get a chance to carry the torch, the carriers ran in pairs.

The first torch carrier ran as scheduled, but then carried it into a warehouse, from which a motorcycle was observed leaving. The torch was then spotted again on a major street nearly two miles off course.

The rerouting was carefully planned, according to San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, who told ''Associated Press'', that it was because of "a disproportionate concentration of people in and around the start of the relay."

The closing ceremonies were held at San Francisco International Airport instead of the planned waterfront location at AT&T Park.

Matt Helmenstine, 30, a California high school teacher carrying a Tibetan flag told Reuters: "I think it's cowardly. If they can't run the torch through the city, it means that no one is supporting the games."

"This is a once-in-a-lifetime thing for us to see the torch," said Nancy Chan, a local resident, to the ''San Francisco Chronicle''. "There is a lot of politics around it, but that is the great thing about America - the free speech." She and her 4-year-old son ran to the new route when it was announced.

Protestors filling the street in San Francisco. 
At least one protester was arrested, Xiao Tan, 32, of Chinese origin, who tried to unfurl a Tibetan flag. "I'm proud to be Chinese, but I don't like what's happening in Tibet," he told AFP. The ''Vancouver Sun'' reported a number of arrests, but says that violence is limited.

Peter Ueberroth, the chairman of the United States Olympic Committee, said that the right balance had been reached, between preserving freedom of speech for protesters, while still providing an exhilarating experience for torchbearers, as well as preventing a repeat of the chaotic demonstrations that accompanied the torch in London and Paris.

Already Tuesday evening, hundreds paraded with Tibetan flags while chanting "Shame on China". On Monday, protesters hung banners from the Golden Gate Bridge. As the torch went to London and Paris, the torch relay was subject to large scale protests in both cities.

Tight security was planned in advance. Airspace restrictions have been put in place and over 700 security personnel are expected to be deployed including FBI agents. Police leave was cancelled. The United States Coast Guard patrolled the part of the route that was to take the torch along the waterfront at Fisherman's Wharf.

"We are trying to accomplish two goals here. One is to protect the right to free speech and the other is to ensure public safety, and here in San Francisco we are good at both of those things," said Nathan Ballard about the security. Ballard is a spokesperson for San Francisco Mayor's office.

"I am saddened that such a beautiful symbol of the torch, which unites people of different religions, different ethnic origin, different political systems, cultures and languages, has been attacked," said Jacques Rogge, the president of the International Olympic Committee, to the ''Wall Street Journal''.

The Beijing Organizing Committee said in a statement on Monday: "We strongly condemn the actions of the few 'pro-Tibet independence' activists who have attempted to sabotage the Olympic Torch Relay. The Olympic flame belongs to the world and these actions are a serious violation of the Olympic spirit. They are bound to fail and will surely arouse the resentment of peace-loving people who support the Olympic Games."