Across town in Rio De Janeiro, far from the Olympics excitement, Richard Conceição Dias, 9, hits the floor when bullets whizzed by, reported the New York Times.

"I lied down on the floor, hugging my mom. She told me, 'Get away from the window, close your eyes, dream about something nice'," he said.

Richard lives in a one-room house with his mother and three sisters at the Complexo do Alemão.

And while others revel in lavish parties in conjunction with the Olympics hosted by the likes of renowned watchmaker Omega, thousands of soldiers are patrolling Rio's upscale seaside districts to ease fears of mugging and other crime.

"But in the shadow of the Olympics, a slow-burning war between drug gangs and the nation’s security forces is taking place.

"As the casualties mount in the favela where Richard lives with his family, the Games seem — to them and thousands of others in some of Rio’s poorest areas — like they are taking place in some distant city," read the news report.

Richard's mother, Jucileia Silva, 35, also highlighted the deplorable living conditions of the city’s poor.

"We live worse than those pretty horses used to compete in the Olympic Games," she said in reference to the equestrian competition.

New York Times also quoted Jose Franklin da Silveira, who penned a poem entitled “The Olympics in Alemão.”

The poem, it said, describes the perplexed reactions of Josimar, a boy who confuses the fireworks from the Games’ opening ceremony with the gunfire that still plagues Alemão.

As he jumps from one rooftop to another, Josimar displays an athletic prowess that would never be harnessed outside Alemão. Instead, the boy’s skills lure the attention of gang leaders who are eager to recruit him.

“In my stories, I write about our biggest fear,” said Silveira, 56. “It’s the fear of stepping outside our homes.”

Videos have also surfaced on how young thieves are preying on tourists in Rio, brazenly robbing them of their bags and mobile phones.

In another video, Brazilian authorities are accused of attempting to conceal the poor slums from visitors by building a wall along the highway on the pretext of it being an acoustic barrier.

“They have don’t have sewage systems, they don’t have housing rights, they don’t have anything,” said Tomas Ramos, a parliamentary assistant.

“But you know, the city is really concerned about how loud the cars are, because they are worried about you know, the ears of the poor people that don’t have food in their stomachs,” he added on a sarcastic note.