BARCELONA -- Bermuda's tourism industry may have been given an unlikely boost with the publicity that followed an incident here yesterday when Spanish thieves made off with the Island's national flag.

Barcelona Olympic Organising Committee officials scrambled about frantically for 30 minutes in the Olympic Village before confronting the Bermuda delegation with the truth behind the mid-morning delay to a flag-raising ceremony.

"Someone had stolen the Bermuda flag overnight from the storage area,'' said chef d'mission Mr. Jimmy Amos. "They wanted to postpone the ceremonies but I said, `No way' and I got one of the guys to get a five by eight flag that I just happened to bring. It was close to the size of the original, so it worked out all right.

"I think they realised for some time that the flag was stolen but didn't know how to tell us. There is no way we'll be getting that back, it's long gone.'' A further 30 minutes passed before the ceremonies got underway with the 21-athlete Bermuda contingent plus officials looking smart in their red, white and blue outfits.

Commonwealth Games gold medal-winning high jumper Clarance (Nicky) Saunders and sprinters Troy Douglas and Dawnette Douglas arrived late on Wednesday afternoon.

The other countries on call with Bermuda were Bhutan, Australia, Antigua and the Netherlands Antilles.

Mr. Amos was presented with a Cobi, the official mascot of the Games, by the mayor of the Olympic Village, Mr. Pasqual Maragall i Mira. The mayor was in turn given a Bermuda coat of arms.