A MAN who got into the Olympic Games opening ceremony armed with a gun and a knife just before the arrival of President Bill Clinton caused a major security embarrassment for Atlanta officials yesterday. Officials said there had been another review after the detention of 55 year old Roland Atkins last Friday night.

Dressed as a security guard, Atkins talked his way past police and duty security guards at the stadium entrances carrying a Smith and Wesson .45 calibre pistol 11 rounds of ammunition and a knife.

Atlanta leaders have already come in for international criticism over transport and technology failures at the Games. The largest security operation in US peacetime history had been planned for the Games and it was further tightened after the TWA jet explosion off New York last week.

Atkins was spotted in the same arena where Clinton and dozens of other VIPs from around the world later gathered to watch the 41/2 hour ceremony. Police handed over Atkins to secret service agents who questioned him and decided he had no malicious intent, said Lyn May, a spokeswoman for the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games (ACOG).