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Man tries to put out Olympic flame with fire extinguisher during torch relay

The Olympic flame was nearly extinguished Wednesday. (Getty)
The Olympic flame was nearly extinguished Wednesday. (Getty)

The upcoming Rio de Janeiro Olympics suffered another PR blow Wednesday night when a man attempted to put out the Olympic flame during a torch relay ceremony.

As the Olympic torch made its way through Joinville, a man ran up from the crowd and attacked it with a fire extinguisher. The man was soon tackled to the ground by security guards and the flame remained unharmed.

This is not the first mishap the Olympic torch has seen during its trip around Brazil. Earlier this summer, a relay ceremony in Maracaju was interrupted when a man tried to douse the flame with a bucket of cold water. In a another incident, an Amazonian jaguar that had taken part in the torch lighting ceremony in Manaus was shot dead after it escaped from its handlers.

As it gets ready to host the games in August, Rio faces a litany of issues including funding, security, transportation, political turmoil and the Zika virus.