Girl, 13, confesses to fatal bus bombing

A 13-year-old girl has confessed to taking part in the firebombing of a city bus in Brazil that killed five passengers, authorities said today.

The teenager told police that she and another woman agreed to flag down the bus so that a group of five drug gang members could throw Molotov cocktails onto it, said Eliane Dornelles, a spokeswoman with Rio de Janeiro’s public safety secretariat.

The girl, whose name was not released because of her age, told police a drug trafficker named “Lorde” asked her to stop the bus.

She said the bus was randomly chosen. She did not know what motivated the Wednesday morning attack, but added that the traffickers tried to trap passengers inside the burning bus.

“Their goal was to kill those people,” Rio Police Chief Alvaro Lins told the O Globo newspaper. “She said the order was not to allow passengers to get out.”

Police said an anonymous tip led them to the teenager, who was arrested today. They were still searching for her woman accomplice.

Local media claimed “Lorde” ordered the attack to retaliate for the death of a fellow gang member in a confrontation with police earlier this week.

Among those killed in the attack were a two-year-old girl and her mother. Two others have not been identified due to their burns. Seven of the 14 people injured remain in hospital.

On Thursday, a drug gang killed four men it said were responsible for the firebombing. Police were still investigating whether those four were involved.