AT LEAST 19 KILLED IN POLICE RAID IN BRAZIL

(BBC) Police in Brazil say 19 people have been killed during a raid against a criminal gang that controls one of Rio de Janeiro’s most violent favelas.

Four hundred heavily-armed military police were deployed to the Alemão favela in the early hours of Thursday.

Sixteen of the dead were suspected criminals, while a police officer and a bystander were also victims, officials said.

The operation lasted all day and left thousands trapped in their homes.

The objective of the raid was to locate and arrest criminals who were planning operations in rival slums, according to police.

Some of the targets were wearing uniforms similar to military police, which made them harder to spot, local media outlet O Dia reported.

Locals were seen carrying injured people into vehicles as police watched.

Gilberto Santiago Lopes, from the Anacrim Human Rights Commission, said police refused to help.

The police “don’t aim to arrest them, they aim to kill them, so if they’re injured, they think they don’t deserve help”, he told Reuters news agency.