Olympic Shames: Prostitution, violence and crime gripping Rio while world watches sporting show (photos)

It is billed as the Greatest Show on Earth.
But the glitz and glamour of the Olympics is taking place against a backdrop of a city gripped by violence, vice and crime.
Even as billions tuned in to see the action this week, three men – suspected gang members who rule the city’s favela slums – were shot dead by cops in a gun battle in north Rio.
A patrol of the 85,000-strong security forces brought in for the Games were shot at in the Mare favela after taking a “wrong turn”. More photos after the cut.

 











And within walking distance of the Olympic Park, where British stars Mo Farah, Greg Rutherford and Jessica Ennis-Hill are taking centre stage, underage girls sell their bodies, in a city with 12,000 sex workers.
In the infamous Vila Mimosa – City of Tender Love – prostitutes made fliers for the Games, offering “cut-price” sex for 40 reals, or £9, almost half the usual price of 75 reals, or £17.

 

Andy Stenning / Daily Mirror

The Villa Mimosa near the Maracana Stadium is Brazil's largest red light district