Protests in Rio de Janeiro as police shoot dead dancer 'who they mistook for drug dealer'

 
Violence: a Brazilian Police Special Forces member takes position during a protest in a favela near Copacabana in Rio de Janeiro (Picture: AFP/Getty)
Michael Howie24 April 2014

Violence erupted in Rio de Janeiro as hundreds of people protested over the killing of a popular dancer allegedly beaten by police.

Angry residents set fires and showered homemade explosives and glass bottles onto a busy avenue in the Brazilian city’s main tourist zone.

Intense exchanges of gunfire were heard when members of an elite police moved into the Pavao-Pavaozinho slum.

The violence broke out only two months before Brazil hosts the football World Cup.

The unrest started last night after a dancer was killed by police who reportedly mistook him for a drug trafficker.

Protest: a man is detained (Picture: AFP/Getty)

The O Globo newspaper, citing local health officials, reported that another resident of the slum was shot and killed, and a 12-year-old boy shot and wounded.

Pavao-Pavaozinho lies a few hundred meters from where Olympic swimming events are expected to take place in 2016.

Tense: a policeman takes aim (Picture: AFP/Getty)

The violence was triggered by the discovery of the body of 25-year-old Douglas Rafael da Silva Pereira. He was a well-known figure in the community, as he was a dancer on a TV show for Brazil’s Globo network, the nation’s largest channel.

Armed: a Brazilian Police Special Forces member (Picture: AFP/Getty)

“The police beat my friend to death, just like they’ve tortured and killed in other communities,” said Johanas Mesquita, a 23-year-old resident of Pavao-Pavaozinho. “This effort to pacify the favelas is a failure, the police violence is only replacing what the drug gangs carried out before.”

Police on the scene refused to answer questions about what prompted the violence. A spokeswoman reached by telephone said they didn’t have an immediate statement.

Search: a military policeman checks locals' bags (Picture: AFP/Getty)

Angry young men began lighting fires throughout the slum and tossing homemade explosives, bottles and other objects down onto Copacabana’s main avenues. Elite police units later entered the slum, and at least three prolonged exchanges of gunfire were heard.

In recent months, drug gangs have brazenly attacked police outposts, in what authorities themselves say is an effort to block the expansion of the “pacification” programme and to win back lucrative drug-selling territory.

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