Sun storm threat to 2012 Olympic Games

Solar firestorms could disrupt telecommunications satellites and internet links during the 2012 Olympics, scientists have warned.

They believe that renewed sunspot activity could peak in two or three years, resulting in vast solar explosions flinging billions of tonnes of charged particles towards earth.

In the past, such storms have caused blackouts in the US.

Professor Richard Harrison, head of space physics at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory near Oxford, said: "The Olympics could be bang in the middle of the next solar maximum which could affect the transmissions of satellites."