Stray Bullets a Deadly Menace in Rio Slums

Three people have been killed and at least nine others injured by stray bullets over the past ten days in Rio, state security officials said Monday after an upsurge in urban violence.

In the most recent incident, a woman was hospitalized after she was shot in the head in the western dormitory town of Bangu while she lay in bed at home.

Two of the three who died in incidents last week were children aged nine and four.

Rio's state security secretary Jose Mariano Beltrame blamed the loose fire on drug traffickers in the city's poor favelas, who he said "idolize firearms" and shoot and kill indiscriminately.

"These people use arms in a totally irresponsible fashion," he said.

With Rio hosting South America's first Olympics next year, the city has deployed special police units to clean up the favelas, many of which have been under the thumb of drug dealers for decades.

"When these things result from police action people in the favelas take to the streets to protest and burn buses," said

"But when it is the trafficking empire and their 'soldiers' nobody reacts," he said.