Hundreds of residents of one of Rio de Janeiro's largest shantytowns marched on Saturday to demand an end to the violence after an eight-year-old girl was killed by a stray bullet during a police operation.

Agatha Sales Felix was hit by the bullet Friday in the Complexo do Alemao shantytown amid what police said was a shootout with suspected criminals.

Residents blamed police for her death.

Police confirmed her death and said an investigation had been opened.

According to the official version, police officers were standing on a corner when they were attacked from various directions. They responded to the attack. There were no reports of other people being injured or arrests during the incident.

"There was no shootout when Agatha was hit," said shantytown resident Renata Trajana.

"We know the atrocities that are happening here."

Hundreds of residents shouted, "Justice! Justice!"

Many blamed Governor Wilson Witzel – a far-right ally of President Jair Bolsonaro who has pledged to give police a freer hand in fighting crime – for an increase in deaths during police operations.

Controversial record on fighting crime

The police lethality in Rio de Janeiro has reached its highest level since the data became available in 2003. 

Rio's Public Secuirty Institute (ISP) recorded that a total of 1,249 people in the state were killed by the police in the first seven months in 2019, of which poor, black citizens constituted a disproportionate number of victims under Governor Wilson Witzel's watch. 

More than five people are killed by the police every day, which witnessed a 16-percent increase compared with 2018. 

Governor Witzel commented on the surge in police killings as "normal," saying it was due to the police "hitting hard" at criminals. 

But his tough-on-crime stance helped align with the security policy of Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro, and has won him many votes concerned about the criminal rate of the state.  

Witzel assumed office at the beginning of January. He previously pledged to "slaughter" criminals by using helicopter-borne snipers and warned that Rio would "dig graves" for those breaking the law under his leadership as part of his promised crackdown on the drug gangs who rule many of the state's favelas. 

Earlier this year, official reports show a 23-percent drop in homicides, a 22-percent fall in auto thefts and a 9-percent jump in drug seizures. 

Addressing Witzel's rhetoric and record, Amnesty International said, "Don't leave a trail of victims that should be protected by the state, like Agatha and more than a thousand people killed this year alone by public security officials in Rio de Janeiro."

(With input from AP)