Off the wire
2nd LD: DPRK delegates meet with S.Korean president at Blue House  • Urgent: Syria vows military response to possible Turkish military campaign  • Gun crime in China drops 81 pct in five years  • Tibet Airlines adds flights for holiday travel rush  • Result of curling mixed doubles at PyeongChang Winter Olympics  • Iran beat Uzbekistan to meet Japan in AFC Futsal Championship final  • Leipzig beat Augsburg 2-0 in German Bundesliga  • Iranian soccer league standings  • Iranian soccer league results  • Brazil's Atletico Mineiro sack coach after row with reporter  
You are here:  

Carnival celebrations kick off in Rio amid rising violence

Xinhua,February 10, 2018 Adjust font size:

RIO DE JANEIRO, Feb. 9 (Xinhua) -- Amid a week of violence, Carnival celebrations officially kicked off here on Friday.

An official ceremony to grant symbolic control of the Brazilian city to the Carnival figure King Momo was held earlier in the day.

Millions of revelers will take to the streets until the end of the Carnival holiday. In the city's traditional parade square Sambadrome, samba schools will parade from Friday to Monday night, and the parades will be broadcasted worldwide.

However, amid the greatest party in the world, Rio citizens have to live with rising violence. In the past four days, five children and teenagers were shot in the city, some of them in their own homes.

On Tuesday, a three-year-old girl was shot to death inside the family car, and a 13-year-old boy was killed while playing soccer. A day later, a four-year-old boy was shot in the back, and remains hospitalized with extremely serious injuries.

Earlier on Friday, a 15-year-old girl was shot in the head and a seven-year-old boy was hit in the arm. Both survived the injuries, but the teen girl's condition is considered extremely grave. Enditem