Skip to main content

Fire breaks out at Rio de Janeiro Olympic Park; no injuries reported

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — A fire broke out Wednesday morning at Rio de Janeiro’s Olympic Park velodrome, prompting a major emergency response involving about 80 firefighters and 20 vehicles, authorities said.

Rio state military fire department said the blaze was under control and largely confined to the venue’s fabric roof. There have been no reported injuries, and the interior of the building — including the Olympic Museum — remained untouched.

Rio Mayor Eduardo Cavaliere told journalists that a small portion of the city’s 1,000-item Olympic museum, which lies inside the velodrome, was affected but that it could be fixed with only minor repairs.

“The structure of the velodrome itself is preserved and the track has not been hit at all,” Cavaliere said.

While the cause of this latest incident is currently under investigation, the facility has a history of roof fires. Two similar blazes occurred in 2017, both caused by falling paper sky lanterns.

Since hosting track cycling during the 2016 Summer Games, the Velodrome has served as a primary training base for Brazil’s national cycling and weightlifting teams.

___

Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america

Iran attacks Bahrain and Kuwait following US strikes, threatens to end talks to end the war

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard launched drone and missile attacks Sunday targeting Bahrain and Kuwait in response to U.S. airstrikes that hit the Islamic Republic, and threatened a “complete halt” could come to negotiations to end the war if Washington continues its attacks. Efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf that once carried a fifth of the world's oil and natural gas, without Iran's direct oversight sparked the crossfire now gripping the region. A multinational maritime body overseen by the U.S. Navy said Saturday that it would expand a route near Oman in the Strait of Hormuz to allow for both inbound and outbound traffic — setting up a new flashpoint with Tehran. Iran insists it alone must govern the strait after the war, upending decades of the world considering that the strait was international waters free for all, despite its sitting in Iran and Oman's territorial waters. Tehran has twice attacked vessels going through the Oman route, backed by a United Nations agency, in recent days. Early Sunday, the U.S. military’s Central Command said it struck Iranian military “surveillance infrastructure, communication systems, air defense sites, drone storage facilities and minelayer capabilities” following an attack on a ship at sea early Saturday morning. That ship, the Panamanian-flagged tanker Kiku, carried crude oil for the state-run energy company of Qatar, a key negotiator between Iran and the United States.
Read Next Story