London Olympics opening ceremony hours away

The opening ceremony of the London Olympics is just hours away after seven years of preparations.

The three-hour spectacle in the Olympic Stadium will be viewed by a global TV audience of around a billion people.

The day of celebration began at 08:12 BST with a mass bell ringing. Big Ben rang for three minutes for the first time since King George VI's funeral.

Lord's cricket ground has turned away spectators trying to get in to watch archery amid confusion over ticketing.

The London 2012 website advertised the event's preliminary rounds as "unticketed", which some members of the public interpreted as open to the public.

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Start Quote

It's a great opportunity to show the world the best of Britain”

David Cameron

Prime minister

But Olympic organiser Locog said it had not advertised or sold tickets for the ranking event and had always made it clear preliminary rounds were not open to spectators.

South Korea later claimed the first two world records of London 2012 in the men's team and individual archery. Meanwhile, the Olympic flame has arrived at City Hall on the Queen's rowbarge Gloriana after first weaving through the maze at Hampton Court Palace and being carried down the Thames on the final day of the torch relay. Around 50 boats took part in the flotilla, each reflecting London's waterborne heritage.

The flame's 70-day nationwide journey ends with the lighting of the cauldron during this evening's opening ceremony but the identity of the person who will take on the honour remains a mystery.

Five-times rowing gold medallist Sir Steve Redgrave and two-times decathlon champion Daley Thompson will take part in the closing stages, although neither is expected to light the flame.

The ceremony is expected to remain dry, but BBC weather forecasters say the jet stream is moving southwards and there will be a return to more unsettled and chillier conditions over the next few days.

BBC forecaster Krista Mitchell said Saturday would remain mainly dry in the south, but showers were likely to affect the Games on Sunday.

There have not been any reports of major transport issues. Network Rail and the Association of Train Operating Companies said most services were running to schedule. Some roads in London were congested around the route of the Olympic torch relay, and in St John's Wood where the archery competition began at Lord's cricket ground.

Prime Minister David Cameron said: "It's a great opportunity to show the world the best of Britain, a country that's got an incredibly rich past but also a very exciting future.

"Someone asked me yesterday what face of Britain do we want to put forward - is it Blur or the Beefeaters? - and frankly it's both."

'Wave of excitement'

US First Lady Michelle Obama has given her own personal good luck message to Team USA

Mayor of London Boris Johnson told BBC Radio 5 live: "What's so amazing is just the wave of excitement seems to pass from person to person like some benign form of contagion. Everybody is getting it."

Danny Boyle, the artistic director of the £27m opening ceremony, dedicated it to the 15,000 volunteers taking part.

"This is a live performance and it's the actors, and in our case they're volunteers, who have to get up there and do it."

Europe's largest bell will ring inside the Olympic stadium at 21:00 BST at the start of the extravaganza, said to be a quirky take on British life.

Some 15,000 square metres of staging and 12,956 props will be used, and the event will boast a million-watt PA system using more than 500 speakers.

The crowd of about 80,000 will include the Queen and a host of dignitaries and celebrities.

The Queen and Prince Philip will host a Buckingham Palace reception for heads of state and government and an opening ceremony celebration concert featuring Snow Patrol, Stereophonics, Duran Duran and Paolo Nutini will be held in Hyde Park.

More than 10,000 athletes from 204 nations will take part in the London Olympics, which has taken £9bn of public money to stage.

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