Korea Students Toss Firebombs at Torch Relay

Radical students shouting “Oppose dictatorial Olympics” hurled firebombs over their school wall at Olympic torch runners today, and riot police stormed into the campus to break up the protest.

None of the torch carriers or escort runners was injured and the procession did not stop, although some of the 50 firebombs exploded about 10 yards from the runners, witnesses said.

Police said 16 riot troopers were injured, many of them by firebombs, in fighting with about 200 students staging a “Stop Olympic Torch Rally” at Kyungwon University in a semi-rural area on the southern outskirts of Seoul.

Seek Role for North

Faculty members tried unsuccessfully to stop the protest by students demanding that the Olympics be shared with Communist North Korea to promote reunification of the divided Korean peninsula. They also contend the Games are cementing authoritarian rule.

“The Olympics are making the rich people richer, the poor people poorer,” a statement by radical students said.

To keep students from marching out to block the torch procession, riot police blocked the main campus gate. But students rushed to the wall and hurled firebombs over, witnesses said.

Police stormed in, and troopers and students battled with their fists, police said. They would not say if there had been any arrests or if any students had been injured.

The Seoul Olympic Organizing Committee said it was unaware of any attack.

Due in Seoul Saturday

The relay carrying the Olympic flame from Greece is on a 22-day, 2,605-mile zigzag course across South Korea and is due in Seoul Saturday to open the Summer Games. It was being carried to the western port of Inchon today when the students attacked the procession, guarded by police and security agents.

South Korea’s bitter rival, North Korea, has said it will boycott the Games in Seoul because its demand to be co-host was turned down.