The International Olympic Committee headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland, were partially flooded on Sunday, Nov 11 after an old water pipe burst, damaging archives and knocking out communications, the organization said, according to AFP.

The pipe, which had been weakened with age, had burst early Sunday near the organization’s headquarters and large amounts of water had gushed into the basement, IOC chief Christophe De Kepper told reporters in Lausanne.

In some places, the water stood as high as two metres, he said.

Around 20 to 30 per cent of the IOC's recent paper archives had been damaged, he said, stressing though that none of the organization’s historic archives had been destroyed since they were housed separately at the IOC museum.