RIO DE JANEIRO — Heavily armed bank robbers invaded the Brazilian city of Cameta just one day after criminals struck another mid-sized city on the opposite side of the country, taking residents hostage as they looted a bank.
Para state’s public security secretariat said in a statement that more than 20 criminals with assault rifles were targeting a branch of the state-run Bank of Brazil in the city in the Amazon region.
Video on social media showed a line of roughly a dozen hostages being led away from a square in Cameta, a city of 140,000 people, and shots ringing out in the night. Local media reported that a military police station was attacked, preventing officers from responding.
The coordinated attack was shocking and came a day after a similar overnight robbery of a Bank of Brazil branch in Brazil’s southern region. In the city of Criciuma, dozens of gunmen armed with assault rifles seized the city and took hostages as they used explosives to rob a bank.
In Cameta, tactical forces as well as police from other areas were dispatched to reinforce the police. Authorities located the criminals’ abandoned truck and found different explosive devices within it, according to the security secretariat.
Two people were shot, including one hostage, a young man, who was killed. The other has been hospitalized with a leg wound.
Cameta Mayor Waldoli Valente issued his condolences for the victim on Facebook.
“Our city was always peaceful and I ask that everyone stay at home,” he posted about 2:30 a.m. Wednesday.
