Rio police kill five in shantytown shootouts

Police in Rio de Janeiro stormed three shantytowns yesterday, killing five people in shootouts, as violence flared for the fourth-consecutive day.

More than 400 heavily-armed police officers climbed the steep, winding paths into the shantytowns in an effort to root out drug gangs and stop the nightly gun battles that have gripped Rio this week, police said.

Four men were killed in a shootout with police yesterday afternoon in the Morro dos Macacos shantytown near the centre of Rio, police said. The gun battle forced the closure of a school and a hospital that served residents of the shantytown. Police were still patrolling the area last night.

The largest operation, involving about 300 officers, was in the Rocinha and Vidigal shantytowns, which have been the site of nightly firefights as rival drug gangs battle for lucrative drug-selling spots there. One man was killed in a shootout with police early yesterday morning, police said.