Rio Olympics: Giant camera crashes to ground, injuring seven

The camera, known as a 'spidercam', came crashing to the ground outside the basketball stadium

Up to seven people were injured when a giant television camera suspended by cables plummeted to the ground in the Rio Olympic Park today, a spokesperson said.
 

The black camera, known as a 'spidercam' and used to take aerial shots of the park, came crashing to the ground just outside the basketball stadium early in the afternoon.

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Video clips uploaded to Twitter showed two shocked-looking women sitting on the ground bleeding. One appears to be bleeding from the nose while the other has blood on her arm.

Another video showed a girl being taken into an ambulance on a stretcher after the camera, the size of a small motorbike, crashed from a great height.

"Olympic Broadcasting Services had realised that the weight of the camera was too much so they started to isolate the area before it fell," a spokesperson for the Games told AFP.

"They thought the wire could hold for a little bit more. (But) the camera fell and hit one of the fences that was isolating the area.

"The camera and the fence hit two women. We're still working to get all the information but we think seven people were injured. They are not serious," the spokesperson added.