Clashes in Brazil kill more than 50

Brazilian police officers frisk two men who were drinking in a bar across the street from a police station that was attacked by gangsters twice in the past two days in Sao Paulo. Picture / Reuters

SAO PAULO, Brazil - Heavily-armed gangsters attacked police posts in Brazil's Sao Paulo state for a second night in the worst wave of crime-related violence in the country's industrial and business heartland in memory.

At least 52 people, mostly police and prison guards, have been killed in shoot-outs and attacks over the weekend, the state security office said today.

The bloodshed was unleashed by a powerful criminal gang in retaliation for the transfer of imprisoned gang members to a remote penitentiary. Prisoners have also rioted in 36 penitentiaries, the security office said.

"We are all indignant and in a state of mourning," Sao Paulo city mayor Gilberto Kassab said yesterday. "It's not a war. It's a battle, which we will win."

A total of 100 attacks have been counted since the gangsters armed with grenades and machine guns first struck, hitting police posts and other targets in rich and poor areas of the city and other locations in the state.

The latest wave included the drive-by shooting last night of a police post at Itapecerica da Serra on the Regis Bittencourt highway, a main road running west from the city. Police chased and killed the three attackers, a state security spokesman said.

As of last night, 35 police and prison guards had been killed as well as three civilians and 14 gangsters. A further 53 people have been wounded, the state security office said.

Police say the violence was launched by the notorious First Command of the Capital, or PCC in Portuguese, one of the most powerful of Brazil's organized crime operations, after authorities transferred 765 prisoners to a new penitentiary 620 km from the capital.

The transfer of prisoners, including Marcos Willians Herbas Camacho, or Marcola, considered the PCC chief, was an attempt to defuse a multi-prison rebellion allegedly planned for this weekend.

Sao Paulo -- the third-biggest city in the world with around 20 million people -- has long been plagued by violent crime. It is the command and control centre for drug trafficking in Latin America's largest country, which is a transit point for cocaine destined for Africa and Europe as well as Brazil's domestic market.

The scale of the coordinated attacks took police by surprise, however.

"The intelligence services need to anticipate these things so that it can take the necessary measures and stop them from happening. This was a big error," Jose Vicente da Silva, a security expert and former top public security official, told Reuters.

Links between corrupt police officer and gangs fuelled the problem, he said.

New riots broke out in prisons across the state just as authorities managed to bring some under control. The state prison service said rioting had erupted in 36 of state's 106 correctional facilities.

- REUTERS