Lula says Brazil will seek independent probe into 'disastrous' Rio police raid

Mourners react as people gather around bodies, the day after a deadly police operation against drug trafficking at the favela do Penha, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, October 29, 2025. REUTERS/Ricardo Moraes

BELEM, Brazil (Reuters) -Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Tuesday his government will push for an independent probe into a police raid last week in Rio de Janeiro that killed 121 people, including four police officers.

"It's important to see under what conditions it happened," he told reporters in Belem ahead of the COP30 climate summit. "The judge's order was for arrest warrants to be served, not a mass killing - and yet there was a mass killing."