A couple of passengers on-board the media bus thought they were being shot at.
The Rio Olympics has had its fair share of ignominy and, last night, endured some more.
12 members of the media were forced to dive for cover on the floor of a bus escorting them from the Olympic hockey venue, through the Deodoro zone, to the main press centre. Two windows of the bus were smashed in the attack with three members of the media suffering minor injuries.
Olympic media bus carrying journalists in Rio hit by possible gunfire or rocks https://t.co/8gRjWm8972
— TIME (@TIME) August 10, 2016
A Press Association photographer, who was travelling on the bus, claimed passengers were shouting ‘just keep going’ as the bus stopped and waited for a police escort to see them safely to the media centre. A brief IOC statement read:
‘We are aware that a media bus travelling from Deodoro to Barra on the Transcarioca had two windows broken by objects coming from the surrounding area.’
Worryingly, Rio organising committee spokesman Mario Andrada told TIME:
‘We don’t know yet if the bus was shot, or it was a stone.’
It will be interesting to find whether those objects were brick-, shoe-, or bullet-shaped.
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