MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Drugs related shootings in northeast Brazil kill 14 in a nightclub

The shooting broke out at 01:30 when a group of armed men arrived in three vehicles at the Forro do Gago nightclub in Fortaleza's Cajazeiras neighborhood.

At least 14 people were killed in a shootout at a nightclub in Fortaleza, in northeastern Brazil, officials said on Saturday. “We can confirm 14 deaths,” Andre Costa, security secretary for the state of Ceara - of which Fortaleza is the capital - told a press conference.

 Costa said that other victims were hospitalized in serious condition, but did not give a number.

A spokesperson from the Institut Jose Frota hospital said that six people, including a 12-year-old boy, had been rushed in for emergency care.

The shooting broke out at 01:30 when a group of armed men arrived in three vehicles at the Forro do Gago nightclub in Fortaleza's Cajazeiras neighborhood.

“It's a brutal scene, a massacre. Something you never see in Ceara,” a police officer, who asked to remain anonymous, told news website G1.

Local media reported that the shootout was a clash between members of two rival drug trafficking gangs.Officials however remained tight lipped. “The investigation is still ongoing,” Costa said.

On January 7, a war between drug gangs already claimed four lives in the suburbs of Fortaleza. Last year there was a record 5 114 murders in the state of Ceara, a 50% rise from 2016.