A sudden, heavy rainfall forced two baseball matches of the Beijing Olympic Games to halt on Thursday afternoon.

The rain struck the baseball range at Wukesong in west Beijing at around 12:50 PM on Thursday, when China and South Korea were at a scoreless draw in the second half of the fourth inning, and the United States led the Netherlands 6-0 in the seventh inning.

Maintenance staff covered the range with plastic film, while some one third of the spectators chose to stay in the stands.

(Xinhua News Agency August 14, 2008)