Brave hostages have revealed their terrifying ordeal after being forced to cling onto getaway vehicles at gunpoint after thieves raided three banks in Brazil.
The heavily-armed gang of 20 robbers also surrounded a police headquarters in Araçatuba, Sao Paulo, in the early hours of Monday, with gunfire and explosions reported.
At least three people were killed in the chaos, including a dad-of-two who was filming the attackers from a petrol station before being gunned down.
The second victim was the son of a police officer, while the third was a suspect.
An estimated eleven people were held hostage for nearly two hours and were tied to the roofs and bonnets of the thieves’ cars after being told they’d be shot if they didn’t hang on.
“All I could think about is that I would die,” an unnamed hostage told Brazilian news website UOL.
He described how a rifle-wielding gunman had stopped him as he drove past on his motorbike.
“I’d heard a commotion, but I thought it was fireworks.
“Suddenly, a man pushed me off my motorbike and told me to stop.
“At first, I thought it was a police checkpoint but then I saw they were assailants,” he told the outlet.
The man added that the thieves were aggressive and fired in the direction of any hostages who didn’t comply, to “show us they weren’t playing”.
Another hostage told Brazilian news site G1, he was used as a human shield and told he’d be shot “in the face” if he didn’t cling to the bonnet of a moving car.
“I think I have never held on so tightly to anything as I did then,” he said.
CCTV footage shows the gunmen marching the lines of hostages through the streets before strapping them to the getaway vehicles, having scattered infrared proximity bombs to stop police from following them.
The criminals even used a drone to monitor the police and closed off some of the entrances into the city to prevent police backup from arriving.
The Araçatuba Military Police said Renato Bortolucci, a petrol station owner, was shot dead.
He had left his wife tending the business as he recorded the robbers.
In the footage he captured before being killed, the 38-year-old can be heard saying: “It didn’t work out very well. The guy didn’t like it, no.
“I said I was going to exchange an idea with him. I want a slice too, son.”
Meanwhile, PE teacher Marcio Victor was driving by when the suspects gunned him down as well.
His father is an investigator with the Civil Police.
The robbers surrounded the police station before striking the branches of the Banco do Brasil, Banco Safra and Caixa Econômica, taking an unknown amount of cash.
After fleeing with the hostages they got into a shootout with police in the rural town of Taveira when one of the suspects was killed.
A police tactical unit from the city of Sao Jose do Rio Preto was called in to help and reinforcements were also sent from the cities of Bauru and Presidente Prudente.
Several people were injured and some required hospital treatment during the drama.
Residents later found explosives and munitions in the streets and said some shops had been damaged.
The police have advised residents of Aracatuba to remain at home, as explosives that can be triggered by heat or movement still litter the streets of the city.
It is unclear if any of the surviving thieves have been detained and the condition of many of the hostages.