Rio de Janeiro: A man has been impaled on a fence outside media accommodation at the Rio Olympics.

Photos show the man, believed to be an accredited Eastern European journalist, with a large spike stuck in his neck near the village bar and close to a temporary laundry tent outside the building.

A witness staying at the site told Fairfax Media the man fell into a manhole that was barricaded with fencing, colliding with one of the fence legs on the way down.

He was rushed to hospital in the early hours of Wednesday morning (local time).

with AAP