Ten people died in gunbattles between police and suspected gang members in a shantytown in Brazil on Friday.
Police chasing a gang leader raided the Alemao slum in northern Rio de Janeiro, triggering the gunbattles. Authorities said in a statement that there were “multiple clashes.”
An elite Brazilian police unit known by its Portuguese acronym BOPE carried out the operation. The local drug kingpin sought in the raid was among the dead, the statement said.
Police did not release the man's identity but said he had escaped prison in 2016 and was on the list of leading drug traffickers in slums, bordering Rio’s iconic Copacabana and Ipanema neighborhoods.
