A GROUP of transvestites, lead by one carrying what is thought to be a brick in a pink handbag, have attempted to rob a Channel Nine crew in Rio.

The crew had only been in the Olympic city for an hour and were with a security team at Copacabana when a transvestite tried to steal the TV camera, Nine reporter Christine Ahern said.

Ms Ahern told 3AW on Wednesday “it all happened in a flash”, with one of the security guards getting “clocked in the head” by the heavy handbag before he quickly ushered the crew into the safety of a hotel lobby.

Reporting from sewage central aka athletes village. Tonight the Rio Mayor weighs into the Aus boycott @9NewsAUS pic.twitter.com/zSHR7BmsJG — Christine Ahern (@ChristineAhern) July 25, 2016

“It was just after we arrived in Rio,” Ms Ahern told 3AW. So we stepped straight off the plane; it was night time and we had to do a piece to camera and so we headed to Copacabana Beach.

“There was a group of transvestites and it all happened in a flash.

“One came straight for my cameraman Glen and that’s when security intervened, but he did get clocked on the head with a handbag, which had a brick or something in it as it was pretty hard.”

Ms Ahern said that until the attack she had “felt pretty safe”.

She said that the bag that the security guard was hit with “obviously had a brick in it or something, because it was pretty hard”.

media_camera The Olympics are less than 10 days away. Picture: AFP media_camera Ms Ahern said there was a high police and military presence around Copacabana. Picture: AFP

“It was just opportunistic,” she told 3AW.

“I was told before I came here ‘it’s going to be luck as to whether you get rolled or not’ and I have to say it is kind of luck.

“Had we have gone up the other section we probably would have been completely fine.

“We did finish the piece to camera fine with no issues.

“We’re lucky we’ve got security with us, and they’re fantastic.

“He’s very experienced, he turned to me and said ‘it’s been a while since I was clobbered on the head by a woman’s handbag’ and just kept on walking. Nothing much fazes him.”

The strange attack is latest in a strong of blows to the Rio Olympics, following the emergence of more grim photos showing the squalor inside the athletes village at the Rio Olympics just days before the Games begin.