Rio police destroy 100,000 guns

Police in Rio de Janeiro have destroyed 100,000 firearms as part of a campaign against guns.

Nearly 20,000 people gathered at Flamengo Park to watch a bulldozer crush the pile of rifles, handguns, machine guns and pistols.

Close to 800 illegally held or used firearms are confiscated by the Rio de Janeiro police each month.

Following protests from historians and museums some 900 rare and antique guns were saved.

Among these were French-made pistols used in the war against Paraguay between 1864 and 1870.

Brazil has one of the highest rates of killings by firearms in the world.

The latest available figures show that nearly 89% of the 46,385 Brazilians murdered in 1995 were shot.