This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

A convoy of trucks carrying nuclear fuel came under armed attack on a highway in Rio de Janeiro state on Tuesday as it drove past a community controlled by a drug gang. Gang members armed with rifles opened fire on the convoy, Rio’s O Globo newspaper said.

Armed police escorting the convoy exchanged fire with armed gang members as the trucks carrying uranium continued to a nearby nuclear plant. The attack is the latest of several violent incidents in the area where Brazil has two nuclear reactors and has raised concerns about its nuclear security in a state struggling with high levels of violent crime.

The attack happened as the convoy passed the Frade community around noon near the tourist town of Angra dos Reis in the Green Coast (Costa Verde), around 200km from Rio de Janeiro. It reached the Angra 2 nuclear plant less than half an hour later, Brazil’s nuclear agency said.

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The attack happened in the same area and on the same highway where the British tourist Eloise Dixon was shot and wounded in 2017 after her family’s hire car accidentally drove into another gang-run community, Água Santa. Last year an armed gang blew up two cash machines in a condominium for nuclear workers just a kilometre from the two plants, which provide around 3% of Brazil’s power.

Brazil’s government-run nuclear agency Eletronuclear said in a statement the uranium was in a “natural state” and would not have harmed the population as it had the same level of radioactivity as when it is found in nature. Police took position on the edge of the highway when shots were heard at around noon as the convoy passed an area where a gunfight was taking place, Eletronuclear said. The company said the convoy had happened to pass an area where a gunfight was happening and was not attacked.

Typically, such convoys have around five or six trucks and are escorted by regular police and motorbike outriders from Brazil’s Federal Highway police, the Eletronuclear spokesman Marco Antonio Alves told the Guardian. It was carrying uranium fuel to supply the Angra 2 nuclear power plant, which began operating in 2001.

However, a spokeswoman for the Federal Highway police in Rio said in a statement the convoy had come under fire.

“During an escort mission near the Frade community armed individuals opened fire on Federal Highway Police teams, who reacted,” she said. “The escort team continued normally. Nobody was arrested or injured. During the exchange of shots, the criminals let a pistol magazine containing 12 9mm bullets fall, which was seized by the team.”

Marco Antonio Alves said the convoy had happened to pass Frade as a gunfight was taking place.

“There was a conflict, there was a gunfight in this community called Frade, the police took position and the convoy continued. Some police stayed behind and exchanged shots,” he said. “What happened was a coincidence.”

The uranium was being transported from Resende in Rio de Janeiro state where it is fabricated in special metal containers, he said.

“We are very worried. Eletronuclear has actioned the federal government for more security. But this is a very complex problem,” he said.

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In recent years low-income communities around Angra dos Reis like Frade have been taken over by armed drug gangs from Rio de Janeiro, including the notoriously violent Red Command (Comando Vermelho).

A rival Rio gang, the Third Pure Command (Terceiro Comando Puro) also disputes some territory with the Red Command.

“Frade has a lot of armed vagabonds from Rio,” said Thimoteo de Sá, a retired police lieutenant and councillor from Angra dos Reis who presides over its security commission, adding that the Red Command control the community. “The population of Frade are shaken.”

“This region now has a lot of problems it didn’t have a few years ago,” Alves said. “I believe something will change because of this but it is very soon to say what kind of modification will be made.”