A colourful fireworks display greeted the key milestone for five Games venues.

Today's ground-breaking ceremony was attended by representatives of Gangwon Province, the Pyeongchang 2018 Organising Committee, and members of South Korea's Culture, Sports and Tourism Ministry.

Work is being carried out at the Gangneung Sports Complex, which is already home to a number of sporting venues.

One of those is an ice rink that will be refurbished into a curling venue as part of the construction project.

A venue for figure and short track skating is also being built, as well as two ice hockey venues, known as ice hockey I and II, which will also host ice sledge hockey during the Paralympics

Construction is scheduled to be completed by October 2016 to allow for test events that winter ©Pyeongchang 2018



These four venues, as well as an arena for long track speed skating, are scheduled to be completed by October 2016 to allow for test events during the winter of 2016-17.

The whole construction project of the ice venues, comprising a 649,000 square metre area, is estimated at $425 million (£248 million/€314 million).

There are just over 1,300 days to go until the 2018 Winter Olympics are due to begin on February 9, with the Closing Ceremony scheduled for February 25.

The Winter Paralympics are set to run from March 9 to 18.