iOS app Android app More  Brazilian Drug Gangs Shoot Down Police
Helicopter (VIDEO)    By FLORA CHARNER, Associated Press Writer
RIO DE JANEIRO - A police helicopter flying over a clash between
drug gangs was hit by gunfire and crashed Saturday, police said.
Two officers were killed.  Bullets from the Morro dos Macacos
slum in northern Rio de Janeiro hit the helicopter pilot in the
leg, causing him to lose control and crash in a nearby football
field, a police spokesman said.  The official -- speaking on
condition of anonymity as he wasn't authorized to discuss the
event -- earlier said all four people in the helicopter had
escaped alive, but later said two of those aboard had died.  The
pilot and another surviving officer aboard suffered burns.
Television images showed the blackened wreckage of the chopper
in the middle of the football field.  Police were not able to
say if this was the first time one of their helicopters had been
shot down.  The helicopter crashed about five miles (eight
kilometers) south