The extraordinarily bloody episode shocked Rio, a city that is no stranger to scenes of gangs battling the police and each other. It also rattled Brazil just as the Latin American nation prepares to welcome delegations from around the world for the UN climate change conference, with events planned in Rio and the Amazonian city of Belem.

Police in Rio de Janeiro have been accused of decapitating a teenager and hanging his head from a tree during the deadliest gang crackdown in the city’s history.

The death toll in Rio’s deadliest police operation in history rose to 132 people, the state authorities say, sparking outrage and a reckoning.

Brazil's Justice and Security Minister Ricardo Lewandowski and Rio de Janeiro State Governor Cláudio Castro announced on Wednesday the creation of an emergency office to tackle organized crime at a local level in a coordinated manner between the federal and state governments.

A vast operation targeting drug traffickers in Rio de Janeiro has killed at least 64 people, including four police officers in what authorities described as the most lethal episode in the battle again