World

Brazil: Overnight shooting spree kills 19 in Sao Paulo

August 14, 2015 7:42 pm

Gunmen have killed at least 19 people on the outskirts of Brazil’s largest city, Sao Paulo, in a series of overnight attacks.

Witnesses in several locations said masked gunmen pulled up in a car before opening fire.

In many cases they checked the victims’ names before shooting, or asked if they had criminal records.

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The authorities in Sao Paulo are investigating the possibility that they were targeted killings.

Such attacks carried out either by criminal gangs or rogue police officers are not uncommon in Sao Paulo, says the BBC’s Wyre Davies.

But police say the number of victims is much higher than in previous incidents.
“I’ve never seen so many people killed overnight in Sao Paulo,” a forensic expert told Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper.