Sao Paulo: Nine killed after police enter poor neighbourhood

At leastninepeople weretrampledto death and two others were injured early Sunday in the chaotic aftermath of apoliceraid in apoorSaoPauloneighbourhood, authorities there said.

Residents blamedthe policefor causing the panicky stampede, local media reported.

The dead included a woman, seven men and a 14-year-old boy, Lieutenant Colonel Emerson Massera, apolicespokesman, told reporters.

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He said a unit of 38 militarypolicehad carried out an operation in the southern favela of Paraisopolis when two men on a motorcycle fired at the troops before fleeing in the direction of a nearby street party, where they continued firing, sparking the stampede.

He said some 5,000 people had gathered for a "funk dance," a weekend street party popular in poorer districts ofSaoPauloand Rio de Janeiro.

Neighbours demand justice

But the mother of a 17-year-old girl injured in the incident told the website G1 thatthe policewere to blame.

She saidpolicesparked the stampedeafterthey closed a street, lobbed pepper-gas canisters and fired rubber bullets.

"It was a policeman who attacked my daughter with a glass bottle," said the woman, who did not give her name.

She went on: "When I saw her, I didn't recognize her. Her face was deformed, and she lost a lot of blood."

Globo television broadcast a video showing a person being kicked by a policeman and said it had been filmed by a favela resident.

The Paraisopolisneighbourhoodassociation denouncedthe policeaction.

"Early this morning, young people were cornered in alleyways and killed," it said in a statement on social media. "We demand justice."

Paraisopolis is one ofSaoPaulo's largest favelas, with 50,000 inhabitants. Many of them live in ramshackle houses along unpaved streets lacking basic services.

Locals defend the funk dances as an important outlet for the young.

Butpolicespokesman Emiliano da Silva Neto said the parties provide cover for crime and illicit drug use, adding, "It's out of control."

Massera said that aspolicechased the two shooters into the street where the party was underway, they were met with a hail of stones and responded with tear gas, rubber bullets and stun grenades.

Da Silva Neto said all those who died had beentrampled, and none had been shot.

The militarypolicehave launched an investigation.