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A petrified trans woman begged for her life moments before being shot dead in a sickening attack.

Dandara dos Santos was dragged from her home and dumped in a wheelbarrow before being rolled to a back alley, beaten and shot dead amid cheers and laughter.

The terrified 42-year-old is seen crying on the ground as she is kicked, punched and hit with shoes and a plank of wood in front of residents in Fortaleza, Ceara state, Brazil.

Horrific footage of the incident sparked outrage after being released by police last Friday to help find the alleged killers.

The video was initially circulated online by LGBT groups in a desperate bid to raise awareness about the huge number of attacks against trans and gender diverse people in Brazil.

(Image: Viral Press)

She begs the savage attackers to spare her life but they simply lift her into a wheelbarrow and roll her away to a back alley where she was beaten and then shot.

The person filmed the clip is heard saying in Portuguese "they will kill the faggot" and laughing while the attackers make cruel taunts about her hormone-therapy induced breasts and hurl homophobic insults.

Police Inspector Damasceno who is investigating the death said: "Six people have been identified and the video has helped with that.

"The footage was first circulated among LGBT groups which helped that process.

(Image: Viral Press)

"The police began circulating the clip and we arrived at the house of two of the people identified but they fled.

"The investigation is already well advanced and we are going after the killers."

The attack on February 15 is one of the latest in a sickening trend in Brazil for targeting transsexuals and transvestites.

According to Brazil's Trans Network, Dandara was the fifth to be murdered last month.

The government of Cear released a statement condemning the killing warning that attackers will be punished.

(Image: Viral Press)

They said: "The Government of Ceara hereby expresses its deepest condemnation of acts of violence and intolerance as what was practiced against Dandara dos Santos, killed by brutal beating.

There have been 2,016 reported killings of trans and gender diverse people in 65 countries worldwide between 2008 and 2015.

More than 1,500 of these deaths were reported in Central and South America, according to Transgender Murder Monitoring project.

Between October 2015 and September 2016 in Brazil alone 123 trans and gender-variant people were murdered.

Within the same period, 295 were murdered across the world.

Thirty were reported to be 21 years old or younger, with some as young as 14.

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