The Olympic flame relay in Paris ended in farce today when police cut the event short after protests forced officials to repeatedly extinguish the torch.

It was a second day of severe embarrassment for Beijing following similar skirmishes in London yesterday as activists demonstrated against China's recent violent crackdown in Tibet.

The Paris stage of the relay ran into trouble immediately after leaving the Eiffel Tower at lunchtime, even though hundreds of riot police and security officials flanked the torch bearers.

With only 200 metres of the planned 17-mile journey to the Charlety stadium on the edge of the city completed, the scale of the demonstrations meant officials had to extinguish the torch and seek shelter on board a bus.

The torch was relit and handed back to the French athletes carrying it through the streets, but it soon had to be extinguished again.

After this had happened for a fourth time, and with the procession hopelessly behind schedule, police decided not to go ahead with its second section.

Instead, the torch was again loaded onto a bus and driven to the stadium, arriving at around 5.30pm local time (1630 BST).

By the time the relay was abandoned, a planned ceremony to greet the torch outside the French capital's city hall had already been cancelled as members of the Green party hung a giant Tibetan flag from the building.

Despite the huge security presence, at least two activists got within little more than an arm's length of the torch before being stopped.

One protester threw water at it, but failed to extinguish the flame and was carried away.

Police grappled many other demonstrators to the ground, using tear gas to disperse those blocking the relay's route. They said 28 people were arrested.

While the turbulent scenes were a blow for the Beijing organisers, the Olympic flame remained alight at all times in an enclosed lantern used to preserve it on planes and overnight during the 85,000-mile journey from Olympia, in Greece, to China.

Wang Hui, the media head for the Beijing Olympics organising committee, today condemned what she called a "few separatists" involved in the protests, insisting the relay would continue as planned.

"The smooth progress of the torch relay cannot be stopped and will definitely be a big success," she added.

The flame was more heavily guarded than it had been in London. It was barely visible inside a 200-metre cordon shielding it from protests as it left the Eiffel Tower, flanked by riot officers and other police on inline skates.

Along the route, some cheered and waved Chinese flags but many others chanted pro-Tibet slogans.

Around 500 protesters congregated at Trocadero Square, which faces the Eiffel Tower.

One torch bearer, the double French judo gold medallist, David Douillet, told RTL radio he regretted the choice of China to host the games "because it isn't up to snuff on freedom of expression, on total liberty, and of course, on Olympic values".

Demonstrations are also expected in San Francisco and New Delhi, India on the torch relay's 21-stop, six-continent tour before it arrives in mainland China on May 4.

The flame's progress through London yesterday was slow, violent and occasionally farcical as protesters repeatedly attempted to disrupt the relay.

China faced already a distinctly chilly official reception in France.

When asked whether he hoped there would be a major protest in Paris, the French foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, said he wanted "people to be informed" about Tibet.

Following reports at the weekend that the president, Nicolas Sarkozy, was still considering a boycott of the opening ceremony, Kouchner said "all options" remained open.

China had hoped the flame relay – the longest in Olympic history - would mark the start of a triumphant coming-out party for the world's most populous nation, marking its emergence as a major economic and political world power.

However, existing concerns over its human rights record were exacerbated following major anti-Beijing protests in Tibet, in which exiled Tibetan leaders claim up to 150 people were killed.