The top technology officer for Los Angeles is pleading with city workers to stop watching the Olympics online at work, saying it could cause a municipal computer meltdown.

The Los Angeles Times reports ( http://lat.ms/OAuDVx) that city tech guru Randi Levin sent an email Tuesday asking workers to stop watching the London games because the city was experiencing a high volume of traffic.

City officials say watching Tuesday's women's gymnastics and soccer competitions live on the Internet causes a tremendous amount of bandwidth to be tied up.

That means city computers might be working at a snail's pace under the strain.

Councilman Dennis Zine says taxpayers aren't paying city workers to watch the Olympics on their computers or televisions.

Zine said he wanted to know where supervisors were during the viewings.

---

Information from: Los Angeles Times, http://www.latimes.com