India produced a dazzling opening ceremony for the New Delhi Commonwealth Games as organisers defied prediction that the event might have to be called off and the chaos of preparations was left behind.

In front of a 65,000-strong audience that included the Prince of Wales, the Duchess of Cornwall and the Earl of Wessex, 7,000 dancers, drummers and acrobats came together to showcase India's vibrant cultural heritage.

But the celebratory atmosphere inside the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium was tempered by the news that potentially lethal dengue fever has broken out in the athletes' village

An Indian lawn bowling official, Ruptu Gogoi, is the first person inside the complex to contract the mosquito-borne disease, which has affected 3,500 people in New Delhi this year and claimed seven lives.

Security around the venue was so tight that ticket holders typically took three hours to get through 19 concentric checkpoints in the ring of steel surrounding the main Games venue.

But once inside the stadium the crowd was treated to a once in a lifetime performance that started on time and went without a hitch. The centrepiece of the evening was a £5.5 million helium balloon that rose into the sky to ecstatic cheers after a countdown beaten out on giant drums. Earlier in the day The Duchess of Cornwall sweltered in 34C heat as she compared the sticky, humid conditions in New Delhi to "a sauna" when she and the Prince visited the athletes' village.

Sheltering under a white parasol and sipping water from a plastic cup, the Duchess asked Commonwealth Games athletes how they were coping with the heat and joked: "It's good for losing weight." The Duchess chatting to two bare-chested British decathletes, Tom Reynolds, 25, from Northern Ireland, who is also a part-time model, and Roger Skedd, 28, from Scotland, telling them: "You're suitably dressed, gentlemen!"

After asking the muscular athletes how they were coping with the heat, she told them, with a smile: "You guys look very fit." The Prince and the Duchess also met 16 bikini-clad members of Australia's women's hockey team, who waded out of a recovery pool to greet them.

With sweat breaking out on his forehead, the Prince was asked if he was hot in his suit and tie, and told 24-year-old Rachael Lynch: "I'm very jealous of you in the pool."