Snoop Dogg stars as flame sails into Paris for opening ceremony

Paris: The Olympic flame cruised into Paris on Friday on a diesel belching tug, the torch held aloft by its white clad bearer, having earlier been car...

Paris: The Olympic flame cruised into Paris on Friday on a diesel-belching tug, the torch held aloft by its white-clad bearer, having earlier been carried by US rapper Snoop Dogg, as it passed under the peripherique motorway.

The 68th stage of the relay since its arrival in Marseille on May 8 was entitled the "Epilogue".

The torch had passed through Paris before, on July 14, the Bastille Day national holiday, and July 15, before circling the suburbs, starting its final journey in Saint-Denis on Friday.

Earlier in the morning, the flame had visited the athletes' village where International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach and former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon took turns as torchbearers.

Phones in hand and wearing broad smiles, athletes from all over the world filmed the torch.