Rio 2016 sells 240,000 tickets in eight hours

Rio de Janeiro: About 240,000 tickets were sold in the first eight hours of the latest Olympic ticketing phase, organisers said.

The rush saw 120,000 tickets bought in the first hour, with football, basketball and volleyball attracting the highest demand, Xinhua quoted Globoesporte as saying on Tuesday.

Globoesporte cited the information from the Rio 2016 organising committee.

Some two million tickets have been made available to Brazilian residents on a first-come-first-served basis in the third sales stage.

The demand on Tuesday was led by residents from the states of Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Minas Gerais, Parana and Distrito Federal.

According to the organisers, tickets remain available for about 400 of 518 sessions. Non-Brazilian residents can buy tickets via authorized resellers in their country.

The Rio 2016 Games, to be held from August 5 to 21 next year, will be the first Olympics in South America.