Rio de Janeiro: Tensions in Rio de Janeiro are mounting as residents of a notorious slum recovered at least seven bodies of suspects they believe were killed by police in clashes that culminated with the crash of a police helicopter late on Saturday.
After a full day of firefights around City of God, a sprawling slum with a history of lethal clashes between police and suspected criminals, residents spoke of a "massacre". Residents believe those killed were used as cover during shoot-outs with police.
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Deadly helicopter crash after violence in Rio slums
Residents Rio's notorious City of God found bodies of at least seven believed to be killed by police in clashes that culminated with a police helicopter crash that killed four on Saturday.
It remains unclear whether more corpses will be found and under what circumstances those already recovered died. Some residents said those killed had been "executed", including one father who lay face down to illustrate how he believed his son died.
A spokesman for Rio police said that the deaths were being investigated on Sunday and declined to comment on how they may have occurred.
Aviation authorities, meanwhile, were investigating the site of Saturday's helicopter crash and the wreckage to determine whether it was downed by gunfire or failed due to some other cause. Four police died in the crash and another officer was killed during Saturday's fighting.
Roberto Sa, Rio's state security secretary, said that none of the police who died in the crash had bullet wounds and that no evidence existed so far to prove that gunfire caused the helicopter to crash. He warned, however, that investigators need more time to determine any cause for sure.
"It's too early for any conclusion," he said.
The weekend clashes come amid a rebound in violent crime in Rio and elsewhere in Brazil. An economic recession and rising unemployment are causing many once-violent areas that had improved during a now-fizzled economic boom to backslide. Making matters worse, security forces are being hindered in their ability to respond due to a lack of funding.
In Brazil's second-biggest and best-known city, the tenuous improvements in security enabled it to successfully host the 2014 FIFA World Cup and the 2016 Summer Olympics.
But with security budgets slashed and economic woes hitting poor neighbourhoods the hardest, many residents fear a return of routine violence by criminals and the sort of well-documented human rights abuses by police that local authorities, despite improvements in recent decades, say still remain a challenge.
Reuters