Homeless woman in Brazil shot dead for 40c

Santos Leandro followed the man to ask for money. Photo / Supplied

Warning: Distressing content

A chilling video has captured the moment a homeless woman was shot dead in broad daylight, seconds after asking a man for spare change to buy food.

Zilda Henrique dos Santos Leandro, 31, called out to Aderbal Ramos de Castro on a street in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to ask for 40c, with the man ignoring her until she caught up with him.

Santos Leandro followed the man to ask for money. Photo / Supplied

After a short exchange de Castro raises a 39-calibre revolver and shoots Dos Santos Leandro, who was also known as Néia.

The homeless woman was attended to by witnesses and rushed to hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

De Castro raises the gun to fire the fatal shot. Photo / Supplied

De Castro fled on foot and was later arrested, with his lawyer later claiming that he thought the woman was trying to rob him as he went to open his restaurant.

His reaction was driven by having been robbed in the area previously, his lawyer claimed.

The slaying came just hours after another attack on the homeless in Brazil, when four homeless men died and four other people were hospitalised in critical condition after drinking from a bottle containing a "suspicious liquid" given to them by unidentified people in Sao Paulo.

Police are investigating the case as a possible mass poisoning in the neighbourhood known as "Cracolandia", or "Crackland", which is infamous for open drug use.

A police statement said a survivor told authorities that the seven men and one woman were offered a bottle they believed contained alcohol Saturday. After drinking it they became sick and four of the men later died in the hospital. The four survivors are in serious condition.

Police are testing the contents of the bottle, which they described as a "suspicious liquid," and are searching for the people who provided the bottle.

- Additional reporting, AP