Dozens wounded at Rio disco after gang boss killed

Gang members shot and wounded dozens of people at a Rio de Janeiro disco yesterday after party organisers refused to stop the music to honour an alleged drug kingpin slain by police minutes earlier.

A duty police officer said gang allies of Andre Moral, shot dead as he exchanged fire with police, demanded quiet at the all-night "Funk Ball" early yesterday in Rio's Chatuba slum in respect for their leader.

But the music and dancing continued, and the criminals started shooting indiscriminately and even threw a grenade.

"We have 39 people here at the hospital after the shootout. Eleven men and six women have gunshot wounds, many others were wounded by grenade fragments," a spokesman for Getulio Vargas Hospital said. No one was reported killed at the dance.

Rio has been rocked by violence over the past week as various slum criminal groups have clashed for control of drug distribution points. The police "occupations" of the slums to stop the violence often claim many lives.

Moral was the ninth alleged bandit slain by Rio police since Friday. Human rights groups accuse Rio police of excessive brutality and even executions of suspects. Authorities deny this, saying police are fighting a war against well-armed gangs. Police killed over 1,000 people in the greater Rio area alone last year, more than in most countries.

On Friday, police shot dead four people described as bandits in the Monkeys Mountain slum. They killed one person on Friday in Rio's Vidigal slum. It was the third shootout there in a week.

A drug gang controlling Vidigal has been warring since April with criminals from Rocinha, Rio's biggest shantytown. That fighting, and police actions, have claimed over 30 lives.

On Saturday, police killed three people they said were drug traffickers in Mangueira slum after gangsters attacked a police post. Two officers were wounded there. Another, who was hurt in a separate shootout in a slum near the city centre, died yesterday from his wounds.