Olympics-Glitch mars lighting of indoor Olympic cauldron

VANCOUVER Feb 12 (Reuters) - The moment everyone had been waiting for mis-fired a little at the Winter Olympics on Friday when the equipment failed in the indoor BC Centre and part of the arms of the Olympic cauldron did not deploy.

All eyes were on hockey great Wayne Gretzky as he stood holding a torch and looking toward the middle of the stadium where the ground opened up but nothing came out.

Several nervous moments went by, when the music continued to play and Gretzky and the other four torchbearers' eyes shifted around as they waited for the arms of the Olympic cauldron to deploy.

Eventually three of the four arms emerged from the ground and the torchbearers lit the bases and the flames shot up and ignited the cauldron.

Then the hole in the ground where the missing arm was to have appeared was covered up and the three legged cauldron burned bright.

It was not clear what caused the malfunction but luckily for Olympic organisers, the external and permanent cauldron for these Games on Vancouver's water front was later lit by Gretzky without a hitch.

(Reporting by Deborah Charles, editing by Jon Bramley; To query or comment on this story emailsportsfeedback@thomsonreuters.com)