Raids, checkpoints in Rio as PanAm Games near

Hundreds of police and troops from Brazil's elite security force raided a Rio de Janeiro slum this week, even searching children in an operation against gangs one month before the Pan American Games start in the city.

Some foreign and local teams have expressed concern over athletes' safety due to daily gun battles between police and drug gangs. Rio authorities promised to step up occupations of dangerous slums and safeguard nearby roads.

Clad in gray camouflage and aiming their rifles at the windows and rooftops of slum shacks, troopers from the paramilitary National Public Security Force set up checkpoints and searched residents going in and out of the Alemao slum.

"In the main street below they are even searching children's backpacks. We've been getting complaints, but what can we do?" said a representative of the Alemao Complex residents' association, who identified himself only as Pedro.

The operation, dubbed Wide Siege, is aimed at stopping weapons and drugs from reaching slum-based gangs, police said.

The force was sent to Rio after a wave of gang violence killed 20 people last December but it has seen little action so far.

Rio has one of the highest homicide rates in Latin America. More than 1,300 people were murdered in the Rio metropolitan area in the first three months of the year.

Meanwhile, the coach of Brazil's volleyball squad said this week Rio was "living a war" and he was worried that while the authorities promise to guarantee the safety of athletes, their families may be facing danger in other parts of Rio.

The Pan American Games start on July 13. Some 18,000 police will provide security at the event.