RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Animals at Rio de Janeiro’s BioParque zoo received popsicles and frozen treats Tuesday as the city faced another day of extreme heat during Brazil’s summer.

Jaguars, monkeys and other animals were given an iced diet prepared according to each species’ needs, zoo officials said. Some received frozen fruit, while others were offered mixtures containing frozen blood.

A group of monkeys were handed watermelon popsicles by zoo keepers. A jaguar tried to fish out ground chicken popsicles from a tray that floated in its water tank.

“When she tries to fish out the frozen food, she ends up ingesting water as well,” said Letizia Feitoza, a biologist at the zoo. “This is important for her hydration.”

Zoo officials said the frozen foods are part of routine animal care and help provide thermal comfort during periods of extreme heat. Similar initiatives were carried out last summer as high temperatures affected much of Brazil’s southeast.

Temperatures in Rio de Janeiro rose over 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) on Sunday and Monday, prompting city authorities to issue a Level 3 heat alert and warn of health risks linked to prolonged exposure.

The high temperatures haven’t stopped residents from visiting the Bioparque Zoo, where they watched the animals licking on their red popsicles.

“I thought it was really cool,” said Lorena Carvalho, a teacher visiting the zoo. “I think it brings them more comfort.”

By Janaina Quinet and Rodrigo Viga Gaier

RIO DE JANEIRO, Oct 29 (Reuters) – The deadliest police operation in Brazil’s history killed at least 132 people, public defenders said on Wednesday, as Rio de Janeiro residents lined a street with dozens of corpses found overnight, a week ahead of global climate events in the city.

State police said the raids targeting a major drug gang the day before had been planned exhaustively for more than two months, designed to drive suspects into a forested hillside where a special operations unit was waiting in ambush.

“The elevated lethality of the operation was expected but not desired,” Victor Santos, head of security for Rio state, told a news conference. Rio police officials confirmed 119 deaths so far, including four police officers.

Santos said there was no connection to global events Rio will host next week related to the United Nations COP30 climate summit, including the C40 global summit of mayors tackling climate change and British Prince William’s Earthshot Prize.

Rio has hosted several global events over the past decade, including the 2016 Olympics, the 2024 G20 summit and the BRICS summit in July, without violence on the scale seen on Tuesday.

The city’s most deadly police raid before Tuesday was a 2021 raid that left 28 people dead in the Jacarezinho neighborhood. In 1992, 111 were killed when Sao Paulo police stormed the Carandiru Penitentiary to put down a prison rebellion.

Residents of the Penha neighborhood in Rio gathered dozens of corpses from the surrounding forest overnight and lined up more than 70 of the bodies in the middle of a main street.

“I just want to take my son out of here and bury him,” said Taua Brito, a mother of one of those killed, surrounded by weeping mourners and onlookers on either side of the long row of bodies, some of which were covered with sheets or bags.

Several civil society groups and public security experts criticized the heavy casualties of the military-style raid. The United Nations Human Rights office said it adds to a trend of extremely lethal police raids in Brazil’s marginalized communities.

“We remind authorities of their obligations under international human rights law, and urge prompt and effective investigations,” the agency said in a statement.

Rio Governor Claudio Castro said he was certain those killed in the operation were criminals firing guns from the forest.

“I don’t think anyone would be walking in the forest on the day of the conflict,” he told reporters, calling the raids an effort to combat “narcoterrorism.”

“The only real victims were the police officers,” he said.

The Rio state government said the operation was its largest ever to target the Comando Vermelho gang, which controls the drug trade in several favelas – poor and densely populated settlements woven through the city’s hilly oceanside terrain.

Police said they had arrested 113 suspects in the operation and seized 118 firearms.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was surprised to learn Rio police had launched an “extremely bloody, violent” operation without notifying or involving the federal government, Justice Minister Ricardo Lewandowski told journalists.

The minister said he planned to meet with Rio’s governor and could increase the number of federal security officials there.

Lula, who returned to Brasilia late on Tuesday from a trip to Malaysia, met with Vice President Geraldo Alckmin and cabinet members on Wednesday to discuss the matter, his office said.

(Reporting by Janaina Quinet and Rodrigo Viga Gaier; Additional reporting by Oliver Griffin, Isabel Teles, Luciana Magalhaes, Eduardo Simoes and Gabriel Araujo in Sao Paulo, and Lisandra Paraguassu in Brasilia; Editing by Brad Haynes and Rosalba O’Brien)

RIO DE JANEIRO, Oct 28 (Reuters) – At least 64 people died on Tuesday in Rio de Janeiro’s most deadly police operation ever, which targeted a major gang days before the city hosts global events related to the United Nations climate summit known as COP30.

Police have often conducted large-scale operations against criminal groups ahead of major events in Rio, which hosted the 2016 Olympics, the 2024 G20 summit and the BRICS summit in July.

Next week, Rio hosts the C40 global summit of mayors tackling climate change and Prince William’s Earthshot Prize, which will feature celebrities including pop star Kylie Minogue and four-time Formula One world champion Sebastian Vettel.

The programming is part of the run-up to COP30, the United Nations climate summit held in the Amazon city of Belem from Nov. 10 to Nov. 21.

The death toll confirmed by Rio Governor Claudio Castro on Tuesday, which included four police officers, was more than twice Rio’s most deadly previous police operation.

“We stand firm confronting narcoterrorism,” Castro wrote on social media about the operation, which he said involved 2,500 security personnel across the Alemao and Penha favela complexes, near the city’s international airport.

Rio’s favelas are poor, densely populated settlements woven through the city’s hilly oceanside terrain. Smoke rose early on Tuesday over the iconic skyline as gangs burnt cars to slow the advance of armored vehicles while bursts of gunfire rang out.

After the most intense fighting subsided, a Reuters journalist saw police from a special operations unit rounding up dozens of shirtless men. Sobbing family members gathered outside of a public hospital attending to those injured.

Tuesday’s operation was described by the state government as the largest ever targeting the Comando Vermelho gang. Castro confirmed 81 arrests as authorities sought to serve 250 arrest and search warrants.

The clashes disrupted the routines of dozens of schools and medical facilities, redirected bus routes and snarled traffic across several neighborhoods in the state capital.

(Reporting by Rodrigo Viga Gaier; Additional reporting by Aline Massuca in Rio de Janeiro and Andre Romani in Sao Paulo; Writing by Gabriel Araujo; Editing by Brad Haynes, Rod Nickel, Nia Williams and Nick Zieminski)