RIO 2016

Rio Olympics: Seven injured when aerial camera, cables fall in Olympic Park

Alan Gomez
USA TODAY

RIO DE JANEIRO — Seven people suffered minor injuries when an aerial camera and its cables fell about 65 feet in the Olympic Park on Monday afternoon.

A general view of Olympic Park after cables broke on an aerial camera which injured two people outside of Carioca Arena- 2 during the Rio 2016 Summer Olympic Games on Aug. 15.

Flavio Oliveira was just getting out of a handball match with his nephew when he heard the wires come crashing to the ground. He said the cable whipped against two girls, hitting one of them in the neck.

"There was no blood. But she was crying, crying, crying," said Oliveira, 40, a medical interpreter and nursing student from Cape Cod.

A statement from the Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS), which provides TV feeds for countries around the world outside NBC, said, "According to local medical authorities, there were seven minor injuries that have received medical attention. A full investigation has been launched."

The camera is operated by the OBS, a not-for-profit arm of the International Olympic Committee.

Pollyanna Padua, an Olympic worker who was working nearby, said the cable fell and injured two adult women.

She said they were given first aid at the site of the crash but described the injuries as "light." Padua said the women were transported to a local hospital.

Games officials placed barricades around the crash site, which is at the entrance of Arena Carioca 2, which hosts wrestling and judo.

People crowded around the scene and stopped along an elevated walkway to take pictures.

The incident occurred at about 2:30 p.m. local time.

Weather in Olympic Park was sunny and hot on Monday, though there were strong gusts of wind that knocked over chairs near the Main Press Center.

The OBS statement described how accident happened:

"This afternoon at approximately 13.30 the pulling rope of the Olympic Park cable camera, which is responsible for its movement, was down in the Olympic Park. At that time OBS dispatched a unit to investigate the situation.

"Adetermination was made to clear the area and start recovering the pulling rope. At that time the camera was at the height of 10 meters above the concourse, supported by the two independent guide ropes, each one of which could carry the full load of the camera. Immediately OBS requested a cherry picker to arrive at the area to access the camera. A few minutes later, both ropes simultaneously broke. This resulted in the camera falling from a height of 20 meters onto a lower concourse. Rio 2016 Security and National Forces mobilised immediately and provided assistance.