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Australian team evacuated in Olympic village fire scare

Xinhua, July 30, 2016 Adjust font size:

Australian athletes were forced to briefly evacuate their apartments on Friday when a fire alarm was raised in their section of the Rio 2016 Olympic village.

Fire crews were called when smoke was detected in one of the buildings at around 5pm local time, officials said.

The athletes were allowed to return to their apartments 30 minutes later and there were no reports of injuries or damages.

"There was a lot of smoke and we had to evacuate," Australian team spokesman Mike Tancred said. "The firefighters came, it was controlled and we returned. There was no big drama."

According to the Estado de S.Paulo newspaper, firefighters said a small blaze was started by a lit cigarette butt in the building's basement.

It is not the first controversy involving Australia at Rio's Olympic village.

The delegation refused to enter their apartments on Sunday due to issues such as blocked toilets, leaking pipes and exposed wiring.

Organizers on Thursday said the problems, which were also reported by several other teams, had been resolved. Endit