Four people were killed in an accident during a police chase in Rio de Janeiro. Two of the victims were police officers

The crash, which followed a more than 27-kilometre police pursuit of a suspicious vehicle, ended early Wednesday with four people dead in the southern zone of the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro. The victims were two police officers involved in the chase and two suspects who fled.

The accident occurred at the exit of the Rebusas tunnel in Rua do Jardim Botánico, an upscale area in the south of the capital Rio de Janeiro, when the pursued car, a red Onyx, and one of the two police cars that were in pursuit, he repeatedly flipped over on a steep descent and collided with each other. The four occupants of the two vehicles died instantly due to the force of the collision and the very high speed at which the vehicles were traveling.

The chase began shortly after three o’clock in the morning local time, at seven o’clock this Wednesday in Lisbon, after the red car disobeyed an order to stop given by four police officers carrying out a routine “Operation Stop” on the famous Linha Vermelha expressway, near from the city of São João de Meriti, in the metropolitan area of ​​Rio de Janeiro. Seeing Onyx disobey orders and accelerate rapidly in an attempt to escape, four police officers got into two police cars and began a chase that crossed several cities at breakneck speed and entered Rio de Janeiro before ending in tragedy.

After the tragedy, an initial search of the vehicle, which fled after being ordered to stop, did not find anything illegal, no weapons or drugs. The only items found in the car were clothes and a camping tent in the trunk, and it was not known until early Wednesday morning why the driver disobeyed orders to stop.