At least 11 people have been fatally shot in a Brazilian police raid in an impoverished favela community on the north side of Rio de Janeiro, authorities have said.
Police said Tuesday’s early-morning raid in the Vila Cruzeiro favela aimed to capture the leaders of a drug-trafficking organisation.
The deaths included a woman who was hit in an exchange of gunfire. Police said 10 suspected gang members who resisted the operation and opened fire on police with automatic weapons were also killed.
“It was a very intense confrontation”, Colonel Ivan Blaz, spokesman for the militarised police force that led the operation, told reporters. He said the woman could have been hit by a shot fired from inside Vila Cruzeiro.
Residents said on social media that heavy shooting began in darkness at 4am local time (07:00 GMT) in a...
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