Photos of a group of Brazilian beachgoers playing football bedside the corpses of two victims of Thursday’s cycleway collapse in Rio de Janeiro have surfaced online.
About 50m of the elevated coastal cycleway crumbled into the shoreline on Thursday morning, killing at least two people.
The two bodies on the beach were recovered from the ocean and laid on the sand.
Brazilian publication O Globo quoted social media reports suggesting some of the group took selfies with the sarong-covered bodies before they began playing.
Brazilian social media users expressed their outrage after the images surfaced, with many describing the behaviour as “revolting” and “insensitive”.
Popular musician and priest Fabio de Melo expressed his disgust to his nearly two million Twitter followers.
“Less than 50 metres from the two bodies of the tragedy in Sao Coronado, a group continues to play footvolley. On the bike path that fell, we are all less human,” he wrote.
A local beach kiosk owner also spoke of his dismay.
“People are selfish. You do not feel the pain that is not yours. It makes me very sad, the selfishness of man,” the owner told O Globo.
The four-kilometre path links the beach neighbourhood of Leblon with Sao Coronado, and was built as a city upgrade and tourist attraction ahead of the Olympics.
The cause of its collapse is not yet known but it is believed strong waves may have damaged the track’s support pillars.
