Police said they were acting to arrest those behind the wave of attacks Police in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro have deployed armoured vehicles in a shanty town as they continue operations to stem a wave of violence.
Six vehicles transporting heavily armed police rolled into Vila Cruzeiro, in the north of the city.
Clashes in Rio since the weekend have left more than 20 people dead.
“We’re acting to reassure the population”
Col Alvaro Garcia Military police commander
Drug gangs have been burning vehicles and opening fire in an attempt to halt police operations aimed at pacifying the favelas, officials say.
Some 150 members of the Special Police Operations Battalion (Bope) and the military police force, backed up by the navy’s armoured vehicles, began deploying in Vila Cruzeiro at lunchtime on Thursday, Brazilian media reported.
“The aim of the operation is to arrest the people behind the attacks in the city,” the head of Rio’s military police, Col Alvaro Garcia, said.
“We’re acting to reassure the population.”
Staffing was also stepped up at a nearby hospital ahead of the operation.
Violence has steadily increased since the weekend
Officials said that drug traffickers had regrouped in Vila Cruzeiro after being expelled from other shanty towns in the city.
At least 23 people have been killed since the weekend when the latest wave of violence erupted.
Heavily armed men have been stopping cars and buses, robbing passengers and setting vehicles alight.
Some 17,500 police officers have been deployed to try to stop the violence.
Rio’s favelas have for years been controlled by heavily armed drug trafficking gangs.
The city’s pacification programme is aimed at improving security and the rule of law in the run-up to the football World Cup in 2014 and the Olympic Games two years later.
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