SAO PAULO: Nineteen people were killed and seven injured overnight in a wave of shootings in Brazil’s biggest city Sao Paulo, a security official said on Friday after reports of a massacre in the suburbs.

Those numbers are still considered preliminary, Alexandre de Moraes, head of the Sao Paulo state security body, told reporters.

Earlier, a spokesman for the security forces had described the wave of killings late on Thursday as “unusual. “Media reports said the shootings occurred at 10 places in the Osasco area, with two more attacks in Barueri, all in a period of about two and a half hours.

Globo News television broadcast security camera footage showing a group of masked assailants entering a bar, ordering clients to raise their hands in the air, then shooting them.

Published in Dawn, August 15th, 2015

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