2.5m people scramble for tickets as website struggles

About 2.5m people a day are fighting to get their hands on Olympic tickets with pressure on the ticketing website running right through the night, organisers said.

Demand appears to have been boosted by Great Britain’s strong performance in the medals table and the start of the track and field events in the main stadium.

Frustration with an online system that has been unable to cope with demand has been compounded by footage of empty seats in so-called accredited areas set aside for Olympic officials, sports federations, national Olympic committees, athletes, and the media.