11 killed in Brazil shanty town shootout

Eleven people, including a 70 year-old woman, are killed in a shootout between police and criminals in a Rio de Janeiro shanty town.

Eleven people, including a 70 year-old woman, were killed in a shootout between police and criminals in a Rio de Janeiro shanty town, regional security officials told AFP.

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The dead also included Jorge Ferreira, nicknamed "Gim," the alleged head of a criminal gang active in the Cidade de Deus (City of God) shanty town, police told AFP.

After the shootout security forces took over the area, located in Jacarepagua, in western Rio, police said.

At first police said that 10 suspects not including the woman had been wounded in the shootout. Later they reported that the wounded, who they described as all being drug traffickers, all died on the way to the hospital.

Rio's governor has maintained a crackdown on the city's infamously crime-ridden slums for the past year and a half.

Official figures show that 1,214 people died "resisting police" in 2007, a figure 22 per cent higher than for the preceding year.