Gangs renew attacks, battle among themselves

? Suspected gang members exchanged gunfire with police, hurled Molotov cocktails at banks and burned buses in and around Sao Paulo for a second day Tuesday, while battles among rival drug groups in Rio de Janeiro left at least 12 dead.

In violence that has become almost a monthly event in Sao Paulo, authorities said members of the First Capital Command gang mounted 100 new attacks against government institutions and businesses in a bid to show their power on the streets. Police shot four suspects dead amid the rampages late Monday night and Tuesday morning.

Meanwhile, gunbattles between Rio gangs over control of the city’s lucrative drug trade has resulted in the deaths of at least 12 people since Sunday, officials said Tuesday.

In response, submachine-gun toting officers took control of three densely populated slums in an effort to avert an all-out war between the gangs based in hillside shantytowns overlooking Rio’s famed beaches.