Woman, 9-year-old girl killed in shootout at Brazil Carnival parade

A woman and a nine-year-old girl are dead from gunshots after a police officer and a suspected criminal exchanged fire at a carnival parade in Mage, a city in Brazil's Rio de Janeiro state, local police said Monday, reported Xinhua.

According to the Homicide Division of the Rio de Janeiro Police Department, the shooting occurred Sunday in Mage, located 60 kilometers from the city of Rio de Janeiro, after the suspect, Flavio Serafim, who has a criminal record, opened fire on police officer Rodolfo Brito Santos, who was hospitalized with a serious injury.

Serafim was also injured and is under arrest at a hospital in the neighboring city of Duque de Caxias.

The shooting generated panic among carnival revelers and left approximately 20 people injured, including two pregnant women, and two children hospitalized in serious condition, the Globo news network reported.