Brazil's Carnival capital of Rio de Janeiro was struck by a wave of apparent drug-related violence today as gangs burned buses and cars and warned shops to stay closed or face retaliation.
Authorities said a police booth was sprayed with machine gun fire in the early hours of this morning and home-made bombs exploded in a posh district of the seaside city, which is now swarming with tourists for the Carnival bash that officially starts on Friday.
Police reinforced patrols across the city and occupied some teeming hillside shanty-towns where drug gangs are based.
Their presence was unable to prevent at least five buses from being torched on the outskirts in the early afternoon. At the scene of one bus burning, police and bandits engaged in a shootout.
In all, 20 buses were burned or vandalised.
At least one policeman was wounded in overnight violence and six bus passengers were being treated for burns in hospitals.