At least 30 people have been killed in two impoverished suburbs of Rio de Janeiro, in what is suspected to be the work of vengeful police officers. (Photo source: Beijing Evening News)

    

A child cries beside a victim of a mass killing at a cemetery.(Photo source: AP)

    

    BEIJING, April 2 -- At least 30 people have been killed in two impoverished suburbs of Rio de Janeiro, in what is suspected to be the work of vengeful police officers.

    The local public safety department says the killings occurred late Thursday in Nova Iguacu and Queimados, two crime-infested suburbs 35 kilometers northwest of Rio.

    The department officials say there are strong indications that the massacres could have been a reprisal, for the arrest of eight police officers suspected of killing two men in police station.

    They added that the killings were apparently committed within several minutes of each other by the same group of heavily armed men.

    In Queimados, the gunmen mowed down 12 people. In nearby Nova Iguacu, 18 people were killed at a bar.

    (Source: CRIENGLISH.com)