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SAO PAULO - Nine people were killed today in Rio de Janeiro after a shootout between drug traffickers and local militias and police, less than a week before Carnival begins in Brazil's tourist capital, police said.
Five gang members in a car attempted to enter the Kelsons shantytown to take over the illegal drug trade that was recently shut down by a militia group that controls the area, police said.
Over the past year, local businesses and residents have hired militias, assembled by active and inactive police officers and firemen, to expel drug traffickers from some neighbourhoods, crime experts have said.
The gang members fled the shantytown after a gunfight with members of the militia in which three bystanders were killed.
The gang, which was carrying four revolvers and a grenade, escaped onto one of Rio de Janeiro's main highways, approached a car and killed its owner, a police officer.
A second shootout followed on the highway between the gang members and Rio police. All five gang members were wounded and taken to a local hospital, where they died, police said.
Among the gang members killed was Alex Silva de Oliveira, known as "Perereca" or toad, who led drug trafficking at the Kelsons shantytown, police said.
The killings took place as authorities scramble to crack down on drug gangs and rein in crime before Rio's famed Carnival festivities begin on Saturday.
Rio will also host the Pan American Games in July. The public security crisis prompted the state government to seek help from the National Public Security Force, elite paramilitary troops now deployed along the state border.
- REUTERS
