SAO PAULO - Four Indigenous people, including a child, were shot during an attack in southern Brazil late on Friday (Jan 3), federal police and an Indigenous rights organisation said on Saturday, as violence escalates in the region.

Attackers opened fire against the Indigenous community near the city of Guaira, in the southern Parana state, injuring four people, later hospitalised, the police said.

The attack was aimed at the Avá Guarani people, who have been the target of previous assaults since Dec 29, the Missionary Council for Indigenous Peoples (CIMI), an organisation linked to the Catholic Bishops Conference of Brazil, said.

A four-year-old child shot in the leg was sent to a nearby hospital in the city of Toledo, alongside two other people, one hit in the leg and the other in the back, said CIMI.

The entity said a fourth person, shot in the jaw, was sent to a hospital in Cascavel, one of the largest cities in the state.

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