Rio bomb squad blows up backpack near cycling course: official

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) – An anti-bomb squad at the Olympic Games in Rio de detonated an unattended backpack near the end of the cycling course on Saturday, a spokeswoman for the public security department said.

Officials expect the bag may have belonged to a homeless man, but protocol requires any unattended objects to be destroyed, she said. The controlled blast occurred at 1:45 p.m. (12:45 p.m. EDT), the spokeswoman said.

(Reporting by Caroline Stauffer; Editing by Daniel Flynn)