Overhead TV camera falls in Rio Olympic park, injures seven

An overhead television camera suspended by cables crashed to the ground in the Olympic Park on Monday, injuring seven people, including two children, in the latest of a string of mishaps to hit South America's first Games.

Members of the military stand guard by a television camera that fell to the ground in the Olympic park during the Rio 2016 Olympic games in Rio Source: AAP

The camera, encased in a heavy black cover, belonged to the official Olympics broadcast unit and fell about 20 metres (65 ft) after cables snapped, sending screams through the crowd, witnesses and officials said.

"I was looking to the camera ... and suddenly I heard a big snap on the cable and the camera came down," said visitor Chris Adams, a member of the British gymnastics delegation.

A Brazilian TV news report showed two women looking dazed, sitting on the ground near the camera. One woman, bleeding from the face as medics arrived, was taken away on a stretcher. The other walked from the scene wearing a neck brace.

A total of four people were taken to hospital after the incident, including two children who had been hit by a cable, a Rio Games official said. All were expected to be discharged later on Monday, the official said.

One of the camera's cables had already broken before it fell and a walkway directly beneath had been cordoned off while the Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS) unit arranged for a cherry-picker to go to the scene and hoist someone up to it, OBS said.

But the camera came down at an angle, falling outside the cordon, said Adams, the British visitor, who was taking pictures of the park at the time.

"There was a lot of medical people and Rio staff around. They were very, very quick, they were excellent. But obviously there is a problem with this overhead Olympic Park camera. It's shocking."

Rio organisers have been struggling with a series of security and logistical problems, including the robbery of U.S. gold medallist swimmer Ryan Lochte and three of his team mates at gunpoint in the early hours of Sunday.

In the first week of the Games, Portugal's visiting education minister was robbed at knife point, bullets flew into the equestrian centre, a Games bus was attacked with stones and the diving and water polo pools turned green with algae.

A witness told reporters he saw the camera crash into two women after the cable snapped.

"It was lucky that there was nobody else that was there because I think someone would have been killed," the man said.

"It came honestly with such a force on the way down when it hit these two women and I think they were very, very surprised at what had happened because it was like a bolt out of the blue. 

"It’s a pretty big camera and you can see the metal and as you saw the camera hit the floor you could see the glass go everywhere."