Tourists and athletes warned over attacks by deadly alligators lurking in lagoons near Olympic venues

OLYMPIC athletes are being warned about the threat of hungry alligators lurking near official Rio 2016 venues.

A leading reptile expert in Rio de Janeiro insists the city’s gator population could be a safety hazard to tourists and athletes.

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The majority of the beasts live in the dank wetlands and marshy areas close to the Olympic Stadiums, the athletes' village and the golf course in Barra da Tijuca, in the west zone of Rio.

Alligator guru Dr Ricardo Freitas said there is a real risk that one of the four metre beasts could escape into the urban area and threaten the safety of unsuspecting tourists and athletes.

Last year a giant alligator was filmed clambering into the lagoon on the Olympic Golf Course.

And while one huge gator was captured outside a popular shopping centre in Barra, others have been found roaming main streets, cooling off in swimming pools and stalking local beaches.

The Olympic Park and Olympic Village have been built in swampy areas which is home to the wild beasts.

But over the years as the waters have become polluted and filled with sewage and garbage, the damage has killed off their food.

This means the savage animals have been found loose outside their habitat as they go on a desperate hunt for food.

Ricardo said: “The big risk has been caused by the expansion of the urban area into the natural habitat of the alligators that have lived in the Barra area for centuries.

“The development of the Olympic buildings has disturbed their way of living and the pollution in the waters now threatens their survival which forces them to leave their surroundings and to go hunting in public places.”

The deadly creatures normally lie hidden in the swampy places near the Olympic complex but they are in full view on the banks of the Lagoinha das Taxas river just fifteen minutes’ drive away from the athlete’s village.

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The dangerous reptiles, some as long as four metres, prowl the river, which runs down the centre of the Vila Amizade shantytown. Residents live side by side with the carnivorous reptiles, that lie submerged in the clouded muggy waters, with one eye open, just yards from people’s doorsteps.

Locals face the daily threat of one of these lethal creatures escaping over the banks in search of food. All the fish in the polluted waters have suffocated and nearly every day someone throws a few scraps to the hungry animals.

One of them is local man, Jorge Luis dos Santos, 47, who regularly feeds the alligators with scraps of fish heads and entrails.

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He said: “The creatures know my voice and come for the food when I call them. I get the fish waste from the local fish monger who is happy to give it away. He says it’s better the creatures are fed by us than them coming to feed on us.”

Last year Vila Amizade residents revealed a three-year-old child was snatched by an alligator as she played close to the canal. She had a lucky escape, suffering just bite wounds.

But cats and dogs are regularly swiped from the edges of the riverbank. As was the case with Luzinete Correa’s pet dog, Billy. The 45-year-old pub owner nearly lost the pup when he was three-months-old to the jaws of one of the beasts.

Ms Correa said: “I tied Billy to a fence by the river outside the pub while I worked inside. I didn’t think anything of it until I heard a real commotion with my dog yapping and people shouting.

“I rushed outside to find my neighbours grappling with an alligator that had crawled up the bank of the river, pushed its way through a hole in the fence and snatched Billy.”

The dog nearly died. He still has the bite marks on his front left paw as evidence to this day.

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Yet locals in this shanty town are used to living side by side with the formidable creatures. They say they are accustomed to them and jokingly call them their ‘pets’.

But Ricardo said this familiarity has made the animals more dangerous because it has ‘encouraged an unnatural intimacy between man and beast’.

He warned tourists to stay clear of the area and not to venture into the swamplands in the vicinity.

He said: “Locals in these places are more accustomed to the animals. But athletes and tourists should beware of venturing close to wetlands and the lagoons near to the Olympic Village and the Olympic venues as these areas are home to high numbers of alligators which could attack.”

The lagoon on the Olympic Golf Course is part of the network of waterways used by the creatures.

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The Olympic organising committee confirmed that five animal welfare experts will be patrolling the course on the lookout for the aggressive beasts during a match.

Vila Amizade residents acknowledge they have created a dangerous and precarious situation for themselves.

As one local said: “We have invaded their home as they were here before us, so what can we do but try to get along.”

Jorge said: “I will continue to feed the alligators because they need our help. We have destroyed their habitat so we need to give them something back.”

But Ricardo said while the intention is good, the result is not ideal.