The website, which is run by the London 2012 official ticketing services provider and Tier three sponsor Ticketmaster, opened for the first time in order to allow people with unwanted tickets to put them up for sale to other members of the public at face value.

Fans trying to buy tickets were able to click onto apparently available events but, after several minutes, were then told these were not available.

"We have told Ticketmaster to suspend the resale system whilst they investigate some issues customers have been experiencing," a London 2012 spokesperson told insidethegames.

"We want buying and selling Olympic and Paralympic tickets through Ticketmaster to be a good customer experience, and so we will re-open the site once Ticketmaster has resolved these issues."

Ticket sales has been one of the biggest problems for organisers so far and earlier this week it was confirmed that 10,000 too many tickets have been sold for the synchronised swimming sessions at the Olympics following a human data error.

There was another computer problem in June last year during the second round of ticket sales when the official website struggled to cope with overwhelming demand and left people unable to access it.

The policy of tickets also came under fire last year for a perceived lack of transparency in the first-round process after fans had money withdrawn from their account without knowing what events they were seeing.

But despite the latest problems, the public have been urged to continue to use the resale platform by Metropolitan Police as the safest way of securing a seat at the Games.

"The resale platform is an ideal system that enables those who can no longer use their purchased tickets to sell them on to Games fans," said Nick Downing, the Metropolitan Police's detective superintendent of Operation Podium, which is responsible for London 2012-related serious and organised crime.

"I would urge all of those ticket holders who want to sell their tickets to do so through London 2012's ticket resale platform."

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