Brazil police intensify counterblow against gang suspects
Brazilian police on Thursday intensified their fight back against gang suspects believed to be behind a wave of street and jail violence which has left at least 170 people dead in six days.

Police stepped up the counterblow against a powerful Sao Paulo gang involved in the violence which was triggered on Friday night by a police decision to move gang leaders to a high security prison.

But the counterblow had raised concerns among human rights groups which alleged that death squads had been involved in the action.

Coordinator of the National Human Rights Movement, Ariel de Castro Alves, said death squads with masked gunmen had shot civilians. He added that the group had a list of at least 16 innocent people who had been killed.

The state government said it had recorded a total of 251 attacks principally targeting police since Friday in Sao Paulo, Brazil's wealthiest province.

The First Capital Command, Sao Paulo's main organized crime group, was believed to be behind the violence.