Hundreds of Brazilian tourists were reportedly stranded on a mountain near Rio de Janeiro as a major gun battle unfolded below.
On Tuesday (21 April), visitors returned to a well-known viewpoint near the city a day after a police operation took place in a nearby favela, according to The Mountain Press.
Reports say the exchange of gunfire began while roughly 200 frightened sightseers were on Morro Dois Irmãos, a peak famed for overlooking Ipanema Beach, where many had gone to catch the sunrise.
TV Globo said officers from the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Bahia and Rio’s Polícia Civil were involved in an attempt to detain suspected members of Comando Vermelho (The Red Command).
The organization is widely described as one of Brazil’s longest-running criminal groups, having formed inside a Rio de Janeiro prison in the 1970s, according to the Department of Justice.
Authorities believed some suspects were based in the Vidigal favela, located to the west of Morro Dois Irmãos.
The BBC reported that the main route used by hikers to reach the landmark was shut off as police and alleged gang members confronted each other.
It is understood shots were fired between the two sides, leaving tourists stuck at the lookout until it was safe to move.
A Portuguese visitor who had traveled to the area to see the sun rise over the ocean told Globo that her guide instructed her and her sister to get down.
“They did their job. It’s always scary, but it was controlled as much as possible. We passed the police on the way, and the situation was already under control,” the woman, named Matilda Oliveiro, claimed.
O Dia reported that guides had been alerted in advance that an operation could happen.
“We were caught by surprise. We were already at the top when we started hearing gunshots, and the guides were already telling us what was happening,” tourist Danielly Nobre told the publication.
“In the end, everything worked out. Everyone went down in a single file, everyone helping, and we managed to finish the trail, see the sunrise, and experience that adrenaline rush,”
Meanwhile Estefânia Andrade, a civil engineer, recalled: “There was a lot of shooting and I didn’t know where it was coming from, if it was going to hit us, if it was close, we really didn’t know. We didn’t know where it was coming from.”
Local outlets said the group was able to make its way back down the mountain roughly 30 minutes later.