(23 Apr 2014) A Rio de Janeiro favela erupted in violence late on Tuesday following the killing of a popular local figure, with angry residents setting fires and showering homemade explosives and glass bottles onto a busy avenue in the city's main tourist zone.
Intense exchanges of gunfire were heard when members of an elite police moved into the Pavao-Pavaozinho favela, which lies a few hundred yards (meters) from where Olympic swimming events are expected to take place in 2016.
Following the discovery of the body of 25-year-old Douglas Rafael da Silva Pereira, angry young men began lighting fires throughout the slum and tossing homemade explosives, bottles and other objects down onto Copacabana's main avenues.
Elite police units entered the favela, and at least three prolonged exchanges of gunfire were heard, presumably between officers and the drug gang members who continue to maintain a presence in the shantytown.
There was no word on deaths or injuries from the action.
It was the latest violence to hit one of Rio's so-called "pacified" favelas - impoverished areas that for decades were controlled by drug gangs.
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