Copacabana beach erupts in violence just two months before World Cup - PHOTO

Exchanges of gunfire could be heard after members of an elite police unit moved into the Pavao-Pavaozinho area yesterday, just two months before Brazil hosts the World Cup,Residents blame police for the killing of 25-year-old Douglas Rafael da Silva Pereira whose body was found earlier in the day. As a dancer on a TV show for Brazil's Globo network, the nation's largest channel, he was a well-known figure in the community. The circumstances of his death are not yet clear.The O Globo newspaper, citing local health officials, reported that another resident of the area was shot and killed, and a 12-year-old boy shot and wounded, during Tuesday night's gunfire. It is not clear who fired the shots that hit either, nor did police confirm the reports.The Pavao-Pavaozinho favela lies just a few hundred yards from where Olympic swimming events are expected to take place in 2016.It was the latest violence to hit one of Rio's so-called 'pacified' favelas - impoverished areas that for decades were controlled by drug gangs.Police began an ambitious security programme in 2008 to drive the gangs from such areas and for the first time set up permanent posts.It is part of Rio's overall security push ahead of the World Cup that begins this June and the Olympics the city will host.So far, 37 such 'police pacification units' have been created covering an area with a population of 1.5 million people.But there have been repeated complaints of heavy-handed police tactics that have ended in the deaths of residents, and that is what set-off the latest clashes, a resident said.More than two dozen police face charges from a high-profile case in a different area, when investigators said a local man died while being tortured by police.Residents have also lamented the lack of social services that had been promised to arrive along with the police presence in their communities.Tuesday's violence erupted following the discovery of the 25-year-old dancer.'The police beat my friend to death, just like they've tortured and killed in other communities,' said Johanas Mesquita, a 23-year-old resident of Pavao-Pavaozinho.'This effort to pacify the favelas is a failure, the police violence is only replacing what the drug gangs carried out before.'Police on the scene refused to answer questions about what prompted the violence. A spokeswoman reached by telephone said they did not have an immediate statement.Following the discovery of the body, angry residents began lighting fires throughout the area and tossing homemade explosives, bottles and other objects down onto Copacabana's main avenues.Elite police units later entered the area, and at least three prolonged exchanges of gunfire were heard, presumably between officers and the drug gang members who continue to maintain a presence in the shantytown.In recent months, drug gangs have brazenly attacked police outposts, in what authorities themselves say is an effort to block the expansion of the 'pacification' programme and to win back lucrative drug-selling territory.Since November, gunfights have regularly broken out in the favela where Tuesday's violence took place.(dailymail.co.uk)ANN.Az