Twelve people were killed around the Brazilian city of Campinas in a surge of violence that began with the murder of an off-duty policeman, police and media said today.
A bus terminal in the southeastern Brazilian city emerged as a focus of the violence with police reporting that five of the deaths overnight occurred there.
At around midday today, the terminal came under attack from a group of 10 to 20 men who set fire to three buses, prompting police to intervene, police and press reports said.
A police spokesman, who raised an earlier toll from 10 to 12 deaths, said an investigation was underway.
"We have not established whether these deaths are related. All we know for now is that they occurred in the same area of Campinas," Sao Paulo state's third largest city, he added.
Some of the killings were perpetrated by criminals riding in vehicles, police said.
The news portal G1, quoting local police sources, said three of the victims were rushed to hospital but died of their wounds while the other were shot dead.
The daily O Estado de Sao Paulo, meanwhile, said the killings occurred hours after an off-duty policeman was killed during a robbery attempt at a gas station in the area.
No arrests have been reported so far.
Last July, a survey on violence published by the Latin American Studies Center said one million people were killed in Brazil between 1980 and 2011, making it the world's seventh most violent nation.
