Gold medal Paralympian Liesl Tesch was robbed at gunpoint in Rio. Credit:Rohan Thomson "We are taking over 400 young athletes to the Games [and] we need to ensure they are protected at all costs." The Australian Olympic Committee was considering putting a curfew in place for all athletes in Rio after the violent incidents, Ms Chiller said on Tuesday. "We will look closer to the time, day to day and on an hour by hour basis, whether there will be no go zones, and areas and restrictions of times, and even curfews that we may need to put in place," she said. Tesch, who has represented Australia in wheelchair basketball and sailing, was left shaken when she was robbed with a team official while they attended a training camp in Rio de Janeiro at the weekend, less than two months out from the Olympics.

Liesl Tesch, from Woy Woy, was riding a bike with a team official when they were confronted by two men. Credit:Rohan Thomson The 47-year-old was riding a bike with team physiotherapist Sarah Ross about 7.45am on Sunday, local time, when they were confronted by two men, one of whom pointed a gun at her chest. They were returning to their hotel at Flamengo Beach in Rio, and there was a fun run taking place about 50 metres away from where they were confronted. Tesch said the armed offender first pointed the weapon at her legs and made what she believed was a demand for money. "I think he said 'dinero'. I speak some Spanish, so I lifted up my shirt and showed him I had no money," Tesch told Channel Nine. "And then he said something else, but I don't know what he said, lifted the gun up towards me [at her chest] and then pushed me in the shoulder and I just fell down on the cobblestones."

Oh my God, a gun, a gun, it's a gun. Liesl Tesch Tesch, from Woy Woy on the central coast, said her mind started racing. "Oh my God, a gun, a gun, it's a gun," she remembers thinking. The offenders stole both of the women's bikes and "just rode off into the park". "It was absolutely horrific, I can see it clear as day in my own head," Tesch said. "We are both shaken, but physically we're both OK." They reported the incident to Australian officials and to Brazilian police. They were not injured in the incident, and Tesch went on to participate in a sailing race later that day.

The incident comes a month after an Australian Olympic Committee staff member was metres from a possibly fatal shooting at a cafe in the affluent suburb of Ipanema. During a planning visit to Rio, the man stopped to have a coffee when a gunman burst in and shot a waiter at the next table three times in the abdomen. The waiter was significantly injured and it is not known if he lived or died. The staff member was "shaken up" and was flown home the next day, where he has received counselling. He will return to Rio for the Olympics. Spanish athletes have also narrowly escaped injury after shots were fired into the Olympic sailing venue while they were training. The venue is near to where Tesch and Ross were robbed.

Kate McLoughlin, chef de mission of the Australian Paralympic team, said the advice from the Australian Federal Police was to "always exercise a high degree of caution while travelling in Rio". "That advice is particularly important before the Paralympic Games period," she said. "We know there will be a hugely elevated level of security in place during the Paralympic Games, but for athletes and teams travelling there before the Games, there is a heightened need to be security conscious." Officials from the Australian Embassy in Brasilia have visited the Australian team's hotel in Rio to provide assistance in the wake of the robbery.