Shootout traps tourists at Rio sunrise lookout

Dozens of tourists were trapped Tuesday at a popular sunrise viewpoint in Rio de Janeiro as a gun battle broke out between police and drug traffickers in the neighbourhood below them, the second such incident affecting visitors this year.

The clashes erupted before dawn in the Morro Dona Marta favela, where police launched an operation against the powerful Comando Vermelho (Red Command) gang, which controls many poor communities in Rio de Janeiro.

Above the favela, tourists who had gone to watch the sunrise from the Dona Marta lookout -- which offers a panoramic view of the city -- were terrified by the gun battle.

A viral video by Rio-based photographer Ari Kaye showed a group of tourists crouching down while continuous gunfire could be heard in the background.

“It was a war-like situation,” Kaye, 43, who had climbed the hill before dawn, told AFP.

“There was a lot of shooting, a very panicked situation. There were about 60 people there and the gunfire lasted around 20 minutes,” he said.

“I came to take a guided tour of the favela, but they told me there is a significant police presence today,” said Jan Plagge, a 40-year-old German visiting Rio de Janeiro for the first time. “They caught some criminals, but it’s over now and I hope the area will be safe again later.”

Claudia Viviane, a 60-year-old resident of the favela, told AFP she had been woken up by the sound of gunfire.

“The first thing you do is think about family, about our children who leave for work at 5 am,” she said.

Stray bullets

The violence spilled into the more affluent neighbourhood of Botafogo at the foot of the hillside favela, where AFP journalists witnessed a heavy police presence.

Videos posted on social media showed military police officers running down Sao Clemente Street, one of the area’s main thoroughfares, carrying rifles.

A man traveling on a bus passing through this street was hit by a stray bullet, a spokesperson for Rio’s association of bus companies told AFP, without providing further details.

An evangelical church and other buildings, as well as parked vehicles, were also struck by gunfire, according to media reports.

It is the second time this year that tourists have been caught up in a police operation in the city.

In April, more than 200 visitors were stranded for two hours at Morro Dois Irmaos, another of the city’s iconic lookout points.

Rio welcomed more than 2.1 million international visitors in 2025, a record.

Thursday’s police operation was part of a wider offensive targeting Comando Vermelho. A raid in October in which officers clashed with heavily-armed gang members left more than 120 people dead.

Police arrested more than 360 people during that operation and seized nearly 480 weapons. Another 17 people have been killed since the October raid, according to official figures.