( dpa ) - Six people were killed in a bank robbery carried out by an armed gang in north-eastern Brazil on Friday, media reports said.
The dead included three police officers, one of the suspected robbers and two passers-by, officials said. The killings took place in the Aracoiaba community.
The deaths occurred in a shoot-out between the ten robbers and police. Gang members who were waiting outside the bank snuck up behind the police officers and shot them in the back. The survivors escaped with an unknown amount of loot on motorcycles and in a sedan.
Around 80 police officers took chase into Saturday morning in Aracoiaba, about 80 kilometres outside the provincial capital Fortaleza. A police helicopter helped in the search.