Sao Paulo – Heavily armed gangsters tied hostages to their escape cars after robbing two banks in Brazil, in a disaster that left three people dead. Using explosives, drones and heavy weapons, the assailants seized the streets of downtown Aracatuba, in the southeast, where about 200,000 people live.
After robbing two banks, they fled tying hostages to the roofs and hoods of moving cars, according to shocking images spread by local news channels and widely shared on social media.
Two civilians and one of the bank robbers were killed during the assault, which left at least six injured, according to police.
The assailants placed explosives in different parts of the city and surrounded some police stations to delay the arrival of reinforcements.
They wore “vests, rifles and bulletproof helmets” and looked like soldiers, a witness told Globo TV who asked not to be identified.
“The scenes of terror experienced by the people of Aracatuba will not go unpunished,” promised Sao Paulo Governor Joao Doria, who ordered a working group of 380 police officers to hunt down the gang. “Two criminals were captured and a third was killed when confronted by police.”
LAZARO JR./Hojemais Aracatuba / AFP / Getty
Brazil has seen other such thefts in recent years, marked by a high degree of planning and heavy weapons, and carried out in medium-sized cities to ensure an escape route and a significant transport of cash from banks.
In December last year, two similar mega-aggressions were carried out just one day apart in cities in the states of Para in the north and Santa Catarina in the south.
A few months earlier, the cities of Botucatu and Ourinhos in Sao Paulo suffered similar blatant attacks.
According to the Sao Paulo Security Department, both cases were resolved and “a good portion of these gangs are in prison.”