Over 130 dead in Rio police raid
Newshour
BBC
4.2 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 29 October 2025
⏱️ 48 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The right-wing governor of Rio state in Brazil has praised Tuesday's controversial anti-gang operation, in which more than a-hundred and thirty people were killed. Claudio Castro said the only victims were the four police officers who died. Two- and- a half thousand police and soldiers took part in the raids against the Red Command. Major gun battles erupted in two Rio favelas in the biggest security operation in the history of Rio state. Brazil's centre-left President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva said he was surprised an operation of this scale was set up without the knowledge of the federal government.
Also in the programme: the Netherlands head to the polls; and a deep dive into presents for US Presidents.
(Photo: Mourners react as people gather around bodies. CREDIT: REUTERS/Ricardo Moraes)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:09.3 | Hello and welcome to News Hour from the BBC World Service. We're coming to live from London. |
| 0:14.7 | I'm Sean Lay. It's good to have your company this hour. We begin in Brazil. We're a state lawyer in Rio de Janeiro says more than 130 people |
| 0:23.2 | are confirmed dead after a major security operation said to have been aimed at drug trafficking. |
| 0:28.8 | On Tuesday, 2,500 police officers and soldiers took part in raids leading to gun battles |
| 0:34.1 | in two of the city's favelas. The public defender's office said it was talking to residents and families of the dead |
| 0:40.4 | to determine the response to what it called unprecedented state violence. |
| 0:45.0 | Authorities say they were targeting the Red Command, a criminal gang they describe as narco-terrorists. |
| 0:50.0 | With more, our South America correspondent, Ione Wells. |
| 1:01.6 | One by one, the community of this favela in Rio de Janeiro collected dead bodies from their community and laid them out in the road. |
| 1:06.4 | By Wednesday morning, dozens lay in Peña, one of the sites targeted in Rio's deadliest |
| 1:11.9 | ever police raid. |
| 1:13.5 | The corpses lie mostly shirtless. |
| 1:15.6 | Some of their faces are mutilated. |
| 1:17.8 | Family members grip the sheets that roughly cover their bloodied limbs. |
| 1:25.5 | I just want to take my son out of here and bury him. |
| 1:28.7 | You know why? It won't do any good. |
| 1:31.4 | The truth is, it won't do any good, because here there are a lot of people crying, |
| 1:35.9 | but outside, there are a lot of people applauding what they did, which was a massacre. |
| 1:49.1 | This mother touches her son's body, saying the government must pay for this massacre. |
| 1:53.9 | They can't destroy so many lives, so many families, and get away with it, she says. |
| 2:02.7 | The raid on Tuesday was carried out by 2,500 police and soldiers in helicopters, armoured vehicles and on foot. |
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