Widespread reports claim that the bus from the airport was held up by a street battle which apparently left six people dead.

Initial reports had suggested that the Chinese basketball team itself had been close to the violence, but these claims were later retracted.

Rio 2016 Brazil Olympic committee chief resigns amid bribe scandal 11/10/2017 AT 21:09

China's Basketball Magazine posted messages and pictures on social media network Weibo about the incident, with the English language website Shanghaiist.com reporting the story: "Upon arriving at the Rio airport, players and reporters boarded different buses headed for the Olympic Village.

"The bus full of basketball players made it there without incident, while the one full of reporters got held up about 2km away from the airport.

It is not the first shocking moment to hit the headlines at the Olympics so far: Chinese hurdler Shi Dongpeng was caught up in a scam when a Brazilian con artist vomited on him as an accomplice stole his belongings.

Even more bizarrely, Brazilian police reported that a Russian Olympic official - and jiu-jitsu expert - was mugged at gunpoint, only to turn the tables on his attacker and shoot him dead in the street. The Russian embassy has denied that report, however, suggesting that the man might only have been posing as a diplomat.

A couple of weeks ago, New Zealand martial arts expert Jason Lee - who lives in Rio - was kidnapped by men wearing police uniform, who took him to an ATM and demanded money.

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