11 killed in Brazil bank robberies

RIO DE JANEIRO: Eleven people — six bank robbers and five hostages, including a child — were killed Friday in a pre-dawn assault on two banks in northeast Brazil foiled by police, the local mayor said. The violence erupted in the city of Milagres, in the northeastern state of Ceara, with a fierce pre-dawn shootout between the armed robbers and the police. “Our information from the hospital is 11 victims killed — six bandits and five hostages,” the mayor of Milagres, Lielson Landin, told Radio Band News.