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RIO DE JANEIRO - Eleven people, including a bodyguard to the Rio de Janeiro state security chief, were killed in three shootings in the crime-ridden Brazilian city, police said.
The 44-year-old police sergeant was going to work at the residence of the security chief, Jose Beltrame, when a group of criminals stopped his car and tried to rob it early Friday.
The man drew his weapon but was shot to death in his car, which was riddled with around 30 bullets, police said.
In another incident, police killed six people in a shootout, frustrating an attempt by a drug gang to invade the Agua Santa slum, the security secretariat said.
Separately, police found four unidentified dead bodies in the trunk of a car next to the Vila Joao slum on the outskirts of Rio.
Many of Rio's 700 slums are controlled by well-armed drug gangs, which wage constant turf wars and clash with police, who, in turn, use brutal tactics against the criminals.
- REUTERS
