Three tourists were kidnapped at gunpoint and marched into a favela in Rio as soaring robbery figures suggest the Olympic Games may be on course to be the most crime-ridden to date, reports the Telegraph. Police in the Brazilian city deployed heavily armed special operations police to find the group of Swedish travelers who were captured Wednesday just moments after stepping out of their taxi. Police statistics suggest street robberies have shot up 81 percent in the past year and murder 38 percent.
The tourists had taken an Uber from their hotel, but asked the driver to stop by the highway take a photograph. While out of the car an armed man approached and took them inside the favela. The driver immediately alerted the police. They were later found unharmed while trying to find their way back to their hotel. An estimated 500,000 foreign visitors arrive for the sporting spectacle but police budgets have recently been slashed by 30 percent following Brazil’s economic meltdown.