By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
The game between Spain and Nigeria started with a small delay in a nearly entirely empty arena while police exploded a suspicious backpack.
According to “Reuters” the backpack was carried away by a robot and detonated, a spokesman for Rio 2016 confirmed. Detonating unattended bags has been common this Games amid concerns over security at South America’s first Olympics.
Still the players had no idea about what was happening. As Pau Gasol after the game: “We thought, I guess nobody came to watch the game. We heard an explosion but we didn’t know exactly what it was or how big it was. We thought it was fireworks or, I don’t know. The arena was pretty much dead empty at the beginning”.