Concerns heighten over security in Rio

Broken windows on an official media bus after they shattered when driving accredited journalists to the Main Transport Mall from the Deodoro venue of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Tuesday. / Reuters-Yonhap

Gunfire feared in Olympic bus attack

By Choi Ha-young

A series of recent incidents in Rio raises concerns over the security of athletes at the Olympics, as a bus carrying journalists was hit by what is believed to be two bullets, shattering two windows, Wednesday, (KST). Three of the 12 journalists suffered minor injuries.

“We don’t know yet if the bus was shot, or it was a stone,” organizing committee spokesman Mario Andrada told reporters in Rio.

The bus was returning from Deodoro Olympic Park zone to the press center when the incident occurred. It came only a few days after a bullet pierced a media tent at the Olympic Equestrian Center, Sunday.

At Copacabana Beach on Wednesday, Belgian judo medalist Dirk Van Tichelt was assaulted by a local thief, suffering a black eye and having his cell phone stolen. Van Tichelt was out celebrating his bronze medal in the 73kg judo eventon the world famous beach when the assault occurred.

A Portuguese government official was attacked, Sunday, on his way back to the hotel located near Ipanema Beach, an upscale Rio district. Tiago Brandao Rodrigues, the nation’s education and sports minister, was walking with his aide when two men approached them and threatened Rodrigues with a knife, forcing him to hand over his money and mobile phone. The minister and his aide were not injured.

Meanwhile, the South Korean players are struggling to keep track of their belongings in Rio. On the second day of the event, field hockey player Baek Ee-seul lost her cell phone inher room in the Olympic Village when she was training outside.

“Small belongings keep disappearing. We recommend players lock up their bags,” said Park Seong-won, South Korea’s swimming teamcoach.

Last month, when theAustralian athletes were evacuated from the village because of a small fire, a laptop and team shirts were stolen. “When I arrived, which was halfway through the evacuation, I saw three fire marshals, and I don’t know who they were, walking out with team shirts,” Kitty Chiller, head of the team’s delegation, told reporters.

On Aug. 4, Danish athletes said they lost two mobile phones, clothing and an iPad. “The buildings are simply not in order,” Ulrik Wilbek, sports director of the Danish handball Federation, told local media. Even trivial things like bed sheets are stolen, added Morten Rodtwitt, the team’s chief.

Before the opening ceremony, an Australian photographer from News Corp lost his $40,000 camera. A female thief distracted Brett Costello, asking for his help, and her accomplices ran off with the device. “No one saw a thing,” he told the Daily Telegraph last Friday. “I couldn’t believe it.” The theft was captured on CCTV and Costello himself later caught one of the thieves at Sambodromo posing as him with the stolen equipment.

Observers are concerned about Brazil’s public security, which has been unstable due to lack of financing. Because of the nation’s economic recession, the city’s budgets were slashed and police officers’ salaries have been delayed, causing security loopholes.

The Rio 2016 organizers said that they have stepped up patrols and deployed over 85,000 soldiers to Olympics venues to secure the Games, double what the London Games used four years ago.