TEN KILLED IN BRAZILIAN SLUM RAID.

By Gary Duffy BBC News, Rio de Janeiro

Police mount the raid in Rio de Janeiro

Ten people, including two teenage boys, have been killed during a police raid on shanty towns in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro, officials say.

The authorities say those who died were suspected drug dealers.

But community and rights groups often challenge the police version of events after major security operations.

The deaths happened at a time when police in Rio de Janeiro are trying a new community policing approach in two of the city's shanty towns.

The raids involving 300 officers were carried out across four of Rio de Janeiro's sprawling shanty towns.

Armoured vehicles and helicopters were used by police searching for drugs, arms and stolen cars.

Two of the dead are reported to be teenage boys, while a woman who was hit by a stray bullet was also taken to hospital.

Brazil's shanty town challenge

The police often stay out of Rio's large shanty towns, only entering on heavily-armed raids directed against drug gangs or illegal militias.

However, the latest killings come at a time when a new approach to policing is being tried in two poor neighbourhoods, one of which was visited by Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Tuesday.

Instead of withdrawing after a short and violent confrontation, the police say they are maintaining a 24-hour presence in the shanty town of Santa Marta in order to take back the area from drug traffickers.

Analysts say the experiment might offer at least a limited alternative for policing in Rio de Janeiro.

However, there are more than 900 shanty towns of various sizes in the city, and the costs and challenges of ensuring all of them are properly policed would be enormous.
BBC NEWS REPORT.