Fireman had to break open a main gate into the Rio Olympic stadium after reportedly losing the keys

THE athletes were at the ready and the spectators were raring to go but there was on problem — no one could find the keys to the Olympic stadium.

Fireman reportedly had to break open one of the main gates to the main Olympic stadium in Rio de Janeiro because the key went missing. Picture: Julia Carneiro/Twitter

“HAS anyone seen the keys to the stadium?” must have been a slightly fraught conversation ringing out over Rio in the past few days.

But, it appears, that despite looking at the hook by the door, in the glove compartment of the car and down the back of the sofa, Olympic officials couldn’t find them and had to break into the games’ main stadium instead.

On Thursday, a reporter uploaded a video to Twitter that showed emergency staff having to break the gates to the Maracanã Stadium, where in just a few hours’ time 80,000 people are due to take their seats for the opening ceremony.

The video, by the BBC’s Julia Carneiro, was reportedly taken on Wednesday ahead of one of the opening women’s soccer matches between Sweden and South Africa.

What a start! #Rio2016 kicking off with lost key and firemen forcing open lock to east gate of Olympic stadium #oops pic.twitter.com/7yj0moF9Ms

— Julia Carneiro (@juliadcarneiro) August 3, 2016

Seemingly unable to open the gates any other way, three men — described as firemen — take hold of a pair of bolt cutters and snap a padlock, holding the steel gates in place, in two.

“What a start!” tweeted Carneiro, “#Rio2016 kicking off with lost key and firemen forcing open lock to east gate of Olympic stadium #oops.”

They then pass the broken padlock through the gate and calmly hand it to a member of Olympic staff, clad in a Rio 2016 shirt, who finally manages to swing open the gates to the most high profile venue of the entire tournament.

The fireman passes the broken lock to an Olympic official so they can finally open the gates to the stadium. Picture: Julia Carneiro/Twitter

Mind you, once the gates were open there was hardly a rush of spectators desperate to get into the stadium.

Brazil is mired in its deepest recession since the 1930s with a reported 1.3 million tickets to the game still to be sold — many of those are to the soccer fixtures.

Being unable to unlock the stadium is the latest in a string of Olympic fails ranging from worries about water quality to muggings of tourists and athletes.

While, on Wednesday, an Olympic flame torch bearer was bundled away when he did a cheeky protest political protest by dropping his shorts to reveal a leopard print G-string and a message for the country’s president scrawled on his backside. And the games haven’t even officially started yet.