Australia’s athletes have again been reminded to focus on their safety in the wake of the suspected rape of an Australian tourist in Paris and an attack on TV broadcast staff working at the Olympic Games.
The message from Aussie officials also came after an Australian BMX team van was broken into in Brussels, before making it to Paris 2024.
Australian Olympic team chef de mission Anna Meares urged athletes to take Ubers or other transport whenever needed for safety, travel in numbers and stick to busier, well-lit paths.
OLYMPIC SCHEDULE: Your day-to-day guide to all the action in Paris, in AEST times
“We’re in one of the biggest cities in the world, and crime is, unfortunately not void in city life and life in general – doesn’t matter what city you’re in,” she told reporters today.
“And so we’re just encouraging people to have their wits about them, the common sense.”
In the latest incident to affect Australia’s presence at the Games, Australian BMX rider Logan Martin posted a video on social media showing damage to his team’s van in Brussels, before heading to Paris.
“Our van got broken into overnight,” he said on Instagram.
“Luckily most of our stuff was in our room and we managed to recover a lot of it too.
“I lost my wallet, backpack and a few other things but overall it didn’t end up being too bad. It’s unfortunate when people feel the need to do things like this.”
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Meanwhile, prosecutors are continuing their investigations into the suspected gang rape of an Australian tourist, who told police she was sexually assaulted by five men near the tourist hotspot of Montmartre at the weekend.
Meares earlier described the incident as “horrific”.
Then late on Monday afternoon, two staff members working for the broadcasting team from Channel 9, the owner of this website, were attacked by a group of people in what appeared to be an attempted robbery.
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