At least 10 people, including a suspected drug trafficker, have been shot dead in the Sao Paulo metropolitan area in the past 24 hours in a worsening wave of violence in which military police have been targeted.
The latest victims were among some 20 people shot in Sao Paulo, Brazil's most populous city, and surrounding towns.
In the latest incident, a suspected drug trafficker was gunned down by state military police officers on Saturday after refusing an order to stop his vehicle on a Sao Paulo highway.
Press reports identified him as a drug baron from Sao Paulo's Paraisopolis slum, where 600 heavily-armed military police moved in Monday after receiving information that a crime boss there had ordered the killing of military officers.
Six other fatalities occurred in the nearby town of Sao Bernardo do Campo, including three killed in a shootout with state military police.