Rio de Janeiro – At least seven people died in clashes between police and suspected drug dealers in one of Rio de Janeiro’s most populous slums, Brazilian officials said.
The latest killings raised the death toll in the Vidigal slum to 11 since Saturday, when police say a turf war between rival gangs started.
Vidigial has a population of 100,000 and is wedged between Sao Conrado and Leblon, two of Rio’s most exclusive and tourist-oriented areas.
It is next to Rocinha, considered the largest slum in the city and the scene in recent years of wars between gangs out to grab control of drug dealing in the area.
Police went to Vidigal on Tuesday night after being tipped off by a caller that drug dealers were hiding at a certain place, police spokesman Col. Leonardo Tavares said.
Tavares said police were greeted by gunfire as they made their way through the winding streets of the slum, and the operation ended with a clash in which seven suspects died.
“The seven people were taken to a hospital still alive, but they died on the way,” the police spokesman said.
The turf war in Vidigal came as a new wave of violence unleashed by the First Capital Command, or PCC, gang rocked Sao Paulo, some 400 kilometers (about 248 miles) west of Rio de Janeiro.
The PCC, which was founded in Sao Paulo state’s prisons, has now extended its operations to other states, including Rio de Janeiro.
Tavares, however, ruled out any links between the PCC and the incidents in Vidigal.
Gang members launched new assaults overnight on the security forces and businesses in Sao Paulo, but no injuries were reported and the attacks appeared to be less intense than those in recent days, police said.
Officials said 10 attacks were reported overnight by suspected PCC members in Sao Paulo and other cities.
In Sao Paulo, two bank branches, a bus, a car dealership and a vehicle parked at the Justice Secretariat were set on fire.
A section of Paulista Avenue, Sao Paulo’s main street, was shut down for some time due to a bomb threat that proved to be false.
Over the past four months, the PCC has coordinated prison uprisings and attacks in Sao Paulo, Brazil’s most populous city, and the surrounding area.
Police killed four suspected PCC members early Tuesday, 24 hours after the gang launched a new wave of attacks on public buildings, buses, banks and police, officials said.
Most of Tuesday’s attacks were in other cities in Sao Paulo state, Brazil’s richest and most populous state.
The violence that spiked again early Monday, following coordinated waves in May and July, was blamed on the drug-running PCC, which holds sway in slums and dozens of Brazilian prisons.
The gang launched the attacks earlier this year to protest transfers of leaders and members to more remote facilities, denial of furloughs and other prison conditions.
The first wave of attacks in May left 133 people dead, while last month’s resumption of coordinated attacks killed eight people.
