Rio de Janeiro, Jan 18 (IANS/EFE) At least seven people were killed Sunday in separate shootouts here, Brazilian media reported.
Miriam Santos Souza, 50, was hit in the head by a bullet while riding on a bus near where police and criminals exchanged gunfire, the Estado news agency reported.

Two suspected robbers died in the shootout, while a man riding on the same bus was slightly wounded.

Three suspected drug traffickers died early Sunday in one of Rio’s “favelas”, or shanty towns.

The dead suspects were carrying three pistols, ammunition and an unspecified amount of cocaine.

Police went to the favela in response to a complaint about an illegal party and were received with gunfire, the O Dia newspaper reported on its website.

A third of Rio de Janeiro’s six million people live in dwellings in the shanty towns, where drug traffickers often wield power through violence, replacing the government.

A police officer was killed and another was wounded Sunday morning when unidentified individuals opened fire on their patrol car.

Sgt. Wilson Alexandre de Carvalho was killed instantly by a shot to the head, while military police officer Davi de Almeida Wanzeler was hospitalised for treatment of leg and chest wounds.

–IANS/EFE

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