RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (AFP) – Violent clashes between police and protesters during the Olympic torch relay have cast a shadow over the Rio Games, while a threatened metro strike raised fears of travel chaos.

Eight days before the opening ceremony, organisers are scrambling to put the final pieces in place. But even as athletes including Jamaican sprinting star Usain Bolt arrived, new woes keep piling up.

The latest concern was a threat by metro employees to strike from August 4, the eve of the Olympics, if they don’t get a 9.83 per cent salary raise. The metro will be vital in moving the 500,000 tourists expected to attend the Summer Games.

There was more bad news late Wednesday when an angry crowd blocked the Olympic torch parade through Angra dos Reis, a coastal resort south of Rio.

Crowds protesting lack of public transport and nearly bankrupt Rio state’s late payment of salaries attacked the procession and were driven off by police using tear gas and rubber bullets.

In footage of the clashes shared online, someone can be heard shouting triumphantly: “The torch has been put out!” as the torch bearer is hustled into the safety of a bus.

The Rio organising committee said in a statement that the torch relay “had to be temporarily interrupted.”

However, “out of consideration to the inhabitants of the city who wanted to attend the relay,” it was restarted at the next stage “after an evaluation by the security team.”

The torch is nearing the end of a 300-city relay that will close with the lighting of the Olympic flame in the Maracana stadium on August 5.

But while organisers portray the epic journey as a chance to ignite public enthusiasm, repeated security incidents have turned the torch into a symbol of the organizational glitches and social discontent overshadowing South America’s first Olympics.

Highlight reels of torch mishaps have gone viral online, including several attempts to extinguish the flame, runners falling over, a police motorbike crashing into the parade, a man attempting to seize the torch, and political protests.

In June, a rare, captive jaguar — the same animal chosen as Brazil’s Olympic mascot — was shot dead after escaping handlers at a torch ceremony.