Organisers insist Olympic Games safe

Rio de Janeiro : Organisers insisted the Rio Olympics were safe on Thursday despite a second bullet being fired into the equestrian venue and a brutal military police shooting not far from the Maracana stadium.

Games spokesman Mario Andrada said safety was guaranteed, even after a bullet landed near the equestrian venue's stables -- the second gun scare at the site in five days.

It follows an attack on a media bus which one eyewitness believes was a shooting. On Wednesday, two military police were gunned down in a favela near the Maracana.

Andrada said the first bullet to hit the equestrian venue, which ripped through the media centre on Saturday, was fired by somebody trying to knock out a drone, and the second came during a police operation to arrest the shooter.

"During this operation, shots were fired against the police and security forces understand that one of the bullets ended up very, very close to the stables," Andrada said.

He said regional army commander General Luiz Ramos had visited the venue and "gave his word that people working there, athletes and also the horses and everybody, the volunteers, are safe".

"This is our highest priority in terms of security and we have all reasons to believe that the efforts made by the army are enough and the security they are providing there is guaranteed," Andrada added.

On Thursday, two police were shot -- including one in the head -- when they mistakenly went into the Vila do Joao favela, reportedly after following a route set by their GPS map.

And on Wednesday, three passengers suffered minor injuries when a media bus was hit in an attack which Games organisers blame on stone-throwing youths.

Lee Michaelson, a journalist and lawyer with a military background, who was on the bus, says she heard gunshots and believes the damage caused was inconsistent with stone-throwing.