Drug traffickers order school closure in Rio de Janiero

In Rio de Janeiro drug traffickers have ordered shops closed in one of its biggest slums in the city in defiance of the authorities’ efforts to restore in the city's vast shantytowns and renewing safety concerns as Brazil prepares to host the World Cup and Olympics.

Shops were closed and more than 5,400 children were not allowed to go to school Thursday morning after traffickers, shouting from motorcycles, ordered a curfew following a shootout with police that killed a drug dealer.

City and state authorities said they suspended classes at four schools and six day-care centers as a precaution.

Such scenes used to be common in Rio de Janeiro home to nearly 12 million people. But the city has battled to rid the slums of criminal gangs before next year's World Cup and the 2016 Olympics.