Organised crime gives a new show of strength

Brazil's most notorious organised crime group has led uprisings in five prisons leaving at least seven dead.

The First Capital Command - better known by its Portuguese initials PCC - also claimed responsibility for two grenade explosions that slightly injured a woman.

By late afternoon on Monday all five uprisings had ended and the 11 guards held hostage in two prisons were released unharmed.

The Sao Paulo State Prison Administration Department said seven prisoners were killed during a settling of accounts between rival prison gangs.

Footage aired by the Globo television network showed inmates in Sao Paulo's Belem and Pinheiros prisons waving white sheets and handkerchiefs and surrounding a phrase scrawled on the ground reading: "No more ill treatment - PCC."

Since it was founded in 1993 by hardened criminals at the Taubate Penitentiary in Sao Paulo, the PCC has established its criminal credentials by masterminding prison breaks and violent rebellions, bank hold-ups and kidnappings.

On February 18 last year, it organised a so-called mega-rebellion with inmates at Sao Paulo's Carandiru prison complex taking guards and thousands of visitors hostage.

Within hours, PCC leaders using mobile phones spread the uprising to 28 other prisons and jails across Sao Paulo state. It took police 27 hours to quash the rebellions, which resulted in the deaths of 19 inmates.

The PCC also made its presence felt on Monday when shortly after midnight two men threw a grenade at a police car parked in front of the Sao Paulo State Prison Administration Department. One woman was slightly injured.

Police later found a note in which the PCC claimed responsibility.