Residents of Rio's northern slums braced for more violence yesterday as hundreds of reinforcements joined a widening crackdown on drug gangs that has killed at least 30 people in six days.
Armoured vehicles rumbled through the pockmarked streets of the Vila Cruzeiro slum on Thursday as elite police units backed by helicopters and snipers battled drug traffickers under a cloud of black smoke from torched buses.
Police claimed to have wrested control of the densely populated area back from drug gangs but TV helicopters filmed scores of armed men fleeing up the surrounding hills into neighbouring districts.
"We've taken an important step, but nothing's been won," state security chief Jose Beltrame told reporters, warning that operations would continue.
"It's important to arrest people, to gather up drugs and ammunition, but it's more important to get them out of the territory," he said, referring to the drug traffickers that rule many of Rio's largest slums.