At least eight people were killed in a police operation in a favela in the Brazilian metropolis of Rio de Janeiro.
Police officers from the Bope special unit and the highway patrol were looking for criminals from the neighboring favela Jacarezinho in Vila Cruzeiro, the Rio de Janeiro state police said in a tweet on Friday. Clashes broke out, and the injured criminals succumbed to their injuries.
14 hand grenades and lots of drugs
Seven rifles, 14 hand grenades, four pistols and a large quantity of drugs were seized. According to the G1 news portal, schools and health facilities in the Vila Cruzeiro area in the north zone of Rio remained closed for security reasons. There was a fierce exchange of fire from early in the morning.
At the end of January, the governor of the state of Rio de Janeiro, Cláudio Castro, presented the “integrated city” program to “recapture” the favelas in Rio, in which around 500 million real (about 81 million euros) are to be invested in Jacarezinho, among other places.
A year ago, 28 suspected criminals were killed
At least 28 suspected members of drug gangs were killed in Jacarezinho last May in the bloodiest police operation in Rio’s history.
Last week, the Supreme Court in Brasília ruled that the government of Rio de Janeiro must take measures to reduce the lethality of police operations. The Supreme Court set a deadline of 90 days for submission of a corresponding plan. (SDA)