25 killed in deadliest Rio police raid since 2005

At least 25 people were killed in a shoot-out between suspected drug traffickers and police in Rio de Janeiro on Thursday, one of the state’s deadliest police raids, police said.

People targeted in the raid in the poor Jacarezinho neighbourhood tried to escape across rooftops as police arrived in armoured vehicles and helicopters flew overhead, television images showed.

The victims included one police officer, and the remainder were suspected members of the drug gang. Among the dead were leaders of the drug-trafficking gang that dominated life in the slum, police said. At least 10 suspects were arrested, they said.

It was the deadliest single police operation in 16 years for Rio state which has suffered for decades from drug-related violence in poor neighbourhoods.

A 2005 raid in the Baixada Fluminense in Rio’s violent northern outskirts killed 29 people.

Police displayed an arsenal of seized weapons at a news conference: six assault rifles, 15 handguns, a machine gun, 14 grenades and a round of artillery ammunition.