Police inspect the remains of one of their crime-fighting helicopters lying in a soccer field after it was shot down when trying to intervene in a battle between two opposing drug gangs, in a Rio de Janeiro slum October 17, 2009. A police helicopter was shot down here on Saturday during a drug traffickers shoot-out, which claimed two police officers and 10 suspected gangsters, said the police.(Xinhua/Reuters Photo)

The chopper burst into flames after being landed on a football pitch. Two police officers died and four other crew members were wounded including the pilot, one of them burned seriously, Duarte said.

Ten suspected traffickers were killed while those gangsters shooting in the slum. Eight buses were set on fire in slums in northern zone by suspected drug traffickers to distract the police forces, said Jose Beltrame, Rio’s state security secretary.

Globo TV, a Brazilian TV station, broadcast the images of the crashed chopper and burning buses, quoting some witnesses as saying that around 15 armed and masked men drove off those passengers before they set the buses on fire.

An armored police vehicle sits near two public buses set on fire by drug gangs trying to distract the police from their battle for the control of a slum, in Rio de Janeiro October 17, 2009.(Xinhua/Reuters Photo)

VietNamNet/Xinhuanet