[News] Brazil bank heist: Armed gang mount fierce assault on city of Criciúma

[Angel of Death]

Residents of the city of approximately 200,000 people first reported hearing gunshots at around midnight.Military police reported that a fire had been set in a tunnel on the main road leading to the city, presumably to prevent the security forces from sending reinforcements to the town. The police headquarters also came under attack.

In other parts of the city, at least six people were used as "human shields" by the armed men, who forced them to sit on a pedestrian crossing to block the road.Residents posted images on social media of what they described as snipers on rooftops.Mayor Salvaro told radio station Radio Gaúcha that the "bandits" had made their getaway in a convoy of cars.Footage posted on social media shows a convoy of black cars leaving the town centre in an orderly fashion.The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.Local media have described the raid as part of a phenomenon they call "New Cangaço", which references a term used to describe the banditry that plagued parts of Brazil in the 1920s and 1930s.Small and medium-sized cities have been the preferred targets for this new type of banditry.In 2019, there were 21 bank robberies in the state of São Paulo alone, according to official figures. In the first half of 2020, there had already been 14.robberies started five years ago. The targets are banks and firms which store and transport valuables.Dozens of criminals take part in a single raid and many of them are heavily armed with machine guns and sometimes even explosives.While most of the raids have been carried out in Brazil, there has been at least one instance where a Brazilian gang carried out a spectacular robbery in neighbouring Paraguay.