Rio De Janeiro, Brazil – Police killed six suspected criminals as authorities vowed to restore order ahead of a huge New Year’s Eve bash on Copacabana Beach, deploying officers across the city two days after gang-initiated violence left 19 dead.
Saturday’s killings came as suspected gang members apparently attempted to renew their attacks, spraying a police station and a shopping center with gunfire, injuring one bystander.
It was not immediately clear whether the suspects killed Saturday had any connections with the initial attacks Thursday. Rio police spokesmen did not return repeated telephone messages seeking comment.
Authorities deployed nearly 21,000 police officers following Thursday’s assaults on police stations and arson attacks on buses.
They pledged to prevent the gangs from initiating more violence Sunday.
“In less than 24 hours, we’ve ended the mess they tried to start,” police Col. Hudson de Aguiar Miranda told the Agencia Estado news agency.
Five of the suspected criminals were killed in a nearly two-hour exchange of gunfire in a poor neighborhood, and a sixth was killed by police during a gunbattle in another shantytown, Brazilian media reported.
In another neighborhood, armed men raided a police station and stole guns, but no injuries were reported. Police conducted several raids in slums, seizing homemade bombs, Molotov cocktails, guns and a grenade.
Most of the violence took place in poor areas of Rio and appeared to have no effect on tourism in chic beach neighborhoods as the city filled with Brazilian and international visitors preparing to celebrate New Year’s Eve.
About 20,700 officers will patrol the city during the celebrations – a 20 percent increase over the year before. Some 2 million people are expected to crowd Copacabana Beach to ring in the new year, including about half a million tourists.
Also Saturday, a 41-year-old Brazilian man among those in a bus torched Thursday by criminals died after suffering burns over 80 percent of his body, said Sandra Barbosa, an administrator at the Pedro Segundo Hospital.
Seven other people were burned to death on an interstate bus set ablaze by gang members. Two police officers, two civilian bystanders and seven alleged gang members also were killed in other attacks around the city.
— Associated Press Writer Alan Clendenning in Sao Paulo contributed to this report.
