'Fell in a ditch'

There had been several clashes during Saturday between police and criminal gangs operating in the City of God favela area. Firefighters removed the bodies of the victims from the wreckage, which could be seen in the footage crumpled and smoking. The helicopter crashed, killing four officers on board, although it is not yet clear whether the gunfire was the direct cause of the crash "It was clear that [the pilot] was trying to do everything to avoid falling over the shanty town or on the expressway, so it turned back and fell into the ditch." Rio state security secretary Roberto Sa said police were investigating a territorial dispute between members of two favelas in western Rio. In 2009, drug traffickers shot down a helicopter, killing two crew members, as police were seeking to "pacify" favelas ahead of the Olympics and 2014 World Cup, also played partially in Rio. Violence has been on the rise in Rio over the past two years following the failure of a 2010 programme to rid the favelas of drug gangs. The murder rate across Rio through September climbed almost 18 percent from the same period a year earlier, to 3,649 reported deaths, according to state statistics.
Four policemen are killed in Brazil after their helicopter is shot down by a "gang".