At least 12 dead in Brazil bank robbery shootout

At least 12 people were killed yesterday, including six police officers, in an early morning shootout between police and bank robbers in a small town in northeastern Brazil, the state governor’s office said. Five hostages, including two children, died in the shootout, local media reported, when police interrupted a gang trying to rob ATMs at two bank branches in Milagres, in the interior of Ceará state. “Our preliminary information is that 12 people died, including six police officers,” a spokeswoman for the governor said by telephone. The gang escaped in two vans without taking any money, G1 said. A local press report said the body of one bank robber was found in an abandoned vehicle by police.