Wellington, March 5 NZPA - The bad experience of a Taranaki couple who went to New Dehli to follow the fortunes of the New Zealand hockey team has prompted a major British newspaper to warn about security hassles envisaged for the Commonwealth Games in October.

"Visitors will not only have to deal with shambolic ticketing arrangements but intimidating security," The Times newspaper in London reported.

The Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium had been turned into a fortress, with 19,000 police officers on all the streets within a 3.2km radius of the stadium.

"Armed guards, snipers, sniffer dogs and commandos patrol the area while armed officers escort blacked-out team buses moving to and from the stadium," the newspaper reported.

Rigorous stop-and-search security for everyone entering the stadium checked for 39 banned items.

But the security personnel are confiscating not only obvious objects -- such as fireworks, knives and laser lights -- but food, bottles, drinks, cameras, pens and coins.

The parents of Black Sticks mid-fielder Ben Collier said that they wished they had stayed at home and watched their son's matches on television.

Cam Collier, who farms at Mangamingi, east of Eltham, said getting tickets for himself and wife Sarah had been a nightmare.

"My wife and I thought we'd sorted all our tickets out before we flew here only to find it wasn't the case at all," Mr Collier told the newspaper.

"We had to go through all sorts of accreditation and form-filling and were told to walk to four different places some distances apart to buy them.

"We had to sit in the sun without food or drinks and I couldn't even take pictures of my son because no cameras are allowed."

Other supporters told similar stories, along with journalists, who are working from a press centre below the stadium and cannot get a signal for their mobile phones, the newspaper reported.

Delhi police commissioner Y S Dadwal promised "foolproof" security in the wake of a bomb blast in Pune last month that killed eight people and threats from al-Qaeda.

"We are not leaving anything to chance," he said.

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