Brazilian police say they have identified four of more than 30 suspects in the gang rape of a 16-year-old girl whose attackers shocked the country by posting video of their nude, unconscious victim online.
Social media exploded with rage on Wednesday over video showing the victim naked on a bed and the suspected attackers boasting that she had been raped by dozens of men.
The French news agency said Saturday that police had arrested the first suspect, as military police conducted a huge manhunt for the attackers in a slum west of Rio de Janeiro. The report said the unidentified suspect was undergoing police interrogation late Saturday.
Brazil's acting president Michel Temer called it "absurd that in the 21st century we should have to live with barbaric crimes such as this."
Authorities believe the victim was assaulted May 21 near Rio de Janeiro, a city plagued by violence and controversy in the runup to the Olympic Games set for August in the city.
Hundreds of people gathered in downtown Rio Friday to protest the rape and a similar assault against a 17-year-old in the country's northeastern state of Piaui. Critics cite the crimes as further evidence of Brazil's endemic problem of violence against women.
