Protests greet Olympic torch

RIO DE JANEIRO — The Olympic torch faced at least three different protests as it neared Rio, a South Korean cyclist was knocked of his bike by a car, and a bomb scare closed a new tram station. As Rio counts down to its Olympic opening ceremony, Tuesday’s dramas were all transport-related.

The Olympic torch spent the day on the other side of the Guanabara Bay from Rio and hit protests in at least three of them.

In Itaborai, a gritty, outlying town, construction of a huge oil refinery project has been mothballed after investigators discovered bribery was involved in contracts — leaving many residents unemployed. Demonstrators carried a banner reading: “While the torch passes lit in Itaborai, jobs, health and education are put out.”

In nearby Sao Goncalo, protesters held up the torch’s progress and forced police to change its route, local media reported. A video posted to YouTube showed a group of a hundred or so demonstrators chanting threats to put out the torch while holding a banner emblazoned with the Olympic rings and the phrase “exclusion games.” Exasperated police stood by.

Rio’s tabloid Extra reported that National Force agents had to cancel a torch ceremony in the town and move participants to the vicinity of a nearby police station so the Olympic flame’s journey could continue.

As the torch moved closer to Rio it was met by a third protest in Niteroi, a more affluent town with views across the bay to the host city. The Folha de S. Paulo newspaper reported that riot police used tear gas to disperse about 200 protesters and arrested two people.

The torch’s journey has been beset by problems as it traveled around Brazil, including attempts to put it out with fire extinguishers. In the seaside town of Angra dos Reis last week, protesters appeared to succeed in putting out the torch in a protest that police met with tear gas and rubber bullets.

The torch was due to sail across the Guanabara Bay to Rio on Wednesday morning before spending two days circulating the city. It will dock at a Naval School in Rio’s renovated port area.