RIO DE JANEIRO, Feb 8 (Reuters) - Six people, including three police officers, were shot dead during a bank holdup in a small town in Brazil's northeast on Friday afternoon, Globo television reported.

The victims of the bloody Wild West-style shootout also included two bystanders and one of the robbers.

Globo quoted local police as saying that at least 10 assailants were robbing the bank in the town of Aracoiaba in Ceara state. The amount of money stolen was not revealed.

Police officials in Aracoiaba could not be reached for comment.

Violent crime is rife in Latin America's largest country.

Nearly half a million Brazilians were murdered between 1996 and 2006, according to a study published last month by aid groups and the federal government. The vast majority were shot.

Still, the number of homicides in 2006 fell for the third consecutive year to 46,660 from a peak of 50,980 in 2003, according to the report.

Many of Brazil's most violent cities are in the impoverished north and northeast, where conflicts over land are often resolved by hired gunmen and many people carry illegal guns. (Reporting by Andrei Khalip)

AlertNet news is provided by