Rate it!

0 votes

Georgia's Olympic team may pull out of the Beijing Games after a state of war was declared in their country.

"We don't know what will happen but we're talking about it now," spokesman for the Georgian Olympic Committee Giorgi Tchanishvili said.

"It will be the decision of the president of the country [Mikheil Saakashvili]," he added.

Russian troops have moved into the South Ossetia region of the former Soviet state, accompanied by tanks and air-strikes.

The Russian-backed region declared a de facto independence in 1992, but Georgian troops have since attempted to regain control of the region.

Russia put the death toll at 2,000 and 30,000 refugees from South Ossetia had fled to Russia over the past 36 hours. Moscow said two of its warplanes had been shot down, 13 of its soldiers killed and 70 wounded.

The Georgian Olympic team urged the international community to help end the violence.

"This deliberate strategy of aggression has grown into a full-scale military intervention involving all regions of Georgia," the athletes said in a statement.

"Georgia calls upon the international community to make it clear [to Russia] that intrusion into and bombing of the territory of a sovereign state is unacceptable in the 21st century and that such acts cannot and will not be tolerated."

Watch live coverage of the Olympics 24/7 on your PC via the Eurosport player - click on the link under the picture to subscribe. Or watch the action on British Eurosport - available in the UK on Sky channel 410 and Virgin Media channel 521.

Reuters / Eurosport