An explosion rumored to come from a suspicious object within the Olympic stadium in Rio de Janeiro turned out to be a controlled explosion performed as a training exercise Sunday night.
Early reports indicated that Brazilian police had found a suspicious toolbox inside Maracanã Stadium, which will host the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2016 Olympic Games.
But now Australia’s The Courier Mail and others report that the explosion was merely a training drill.
The Courier Mail reports that Rio’s bomb squad sent in a robot to detonate a bag outside of the stadium as dress rehearsals were taking place for the opening ceremony, which will take place this Friday, August 5th.
An inspector from Rio’s bomb squad says the backpack did not contain any explosives, and was detonated by the robot at about 9:30 Rio time Sunday night.
The Olympics have already had their fair share of wrinkles, including a fire inside the athletes village that caused the Australian Olympic team to be evacuated from their building. During the fire, laptops, clothing and personal items were stolen from some team members.
That added to the concern of the early reports about an explosion, which took off on social media before news broke that the explosion was a drill.
None of the athletes should have to experience the level of incompetence that has gone into these Olympics. Who in their right mind thought it’d be a good idea to hand the Olympics to Brazil?
When they got ’em I think their economy was doin’ pretty well. Last couple years? Notsomuch.
There still should just be a permanent Olympic site. Maybe even rotate it between 3 places or something if the same one would get too boring. But it’s just such a scam.
Fire, theft inside the athletes village, unfinished event sites (posted by various teams), dead bodies in the water – I am not surprised. But I think these athletes have enough experience to not let this get in the way of their performance!
I bet the swim team is going to be bombed by a suicide bomber. You know, because its rio.
Natives with a formidable list of grievances will fire poison arrows from the “awwhharen’t they colourful ” participants in the opening ceremony. I should be a security expert on that alone . Wheres my job?