A 5-year-old girl was killed today by a stray bullet in a favela of Rio de Janeiro, where earlier a 17-year-old had been shot dead by a police officer.

The family of the deceased Eloa said the five-year-old girl was playing in her bed when she was fatally wounded by a stray bullet.

According to the non-governmental organization Rio de Paz, little Eloa is the fifteenth child under the age of 15 to be killed by a bullet in Rio de Janeiro since the beginning of 2022.

Military police say in a press release that it all started with a shooting incident in the Mojo do Dede favela, near the international airport, when one of two motorcycle riders shot at a police officer and security forces returned fire.

An episodic demonstration by residents of the area followed and during the riots “a bus was set on fire”, according to the relevant information.

“According to reports, a child was shot inside his home,” military police said, claiming that “no business was taking place” in the favela at the time.

The TV Globo network reports that residents accuse the police of opening fire during the demonstration.

According to the Fogo Cruzado (Crossfire) collective, more than 600 minors have been killed or injured by bullets in Rio de Janeiro since 2016 (an average of one every four days).

Drug-trafficking gangs are ravaging the favelas of the Brazilian metropolis, where bloody raids by law enforcement are frequent. Ten days ago, nine people were killed in a police operation in another Rio favela.

Last year, 6,429 people were killed by police fire across Brazil (up from 17 on a daily basis), according to data from the NGO Brazilian Forum for Public Security (Forum Brasileiro de Segurança Publica).