Brazil police seek 5 over murder

(ANSA) - Sao Paulo, December 5 - Brazilian police said Tuesday they are seeking a gang of five people who stabbed to death an Italian during a robbery of the villa he had rented with his wife in the town of Beberibe.
    Alberto Baroli, 51, from Milan but residing in Paris, was murdered by the gang who entered the seaside vacation home in the northeastern state of Ceara', police said.
    They said that one of the five robbers, Gilmar Paiva de Moraes, 23, delivered the mortal wounds with a large kitchen knife.
    De Moraes is a defendant in two robbery trials and wears and electronic bracelet, police told a press conference. Baroli's wife was locked in the bathroom by the criminals while he tried to stop the robbers, according to police.
    The robbers escaped with the victim's iPhone, a notebook and about 5,000 euros in cash.
    Police say that the group had committed another home robbery not far from that of the Italian tourist couple. Local police have arrested a woman - Damiana Paiva da Silva, 27 - on homicide charges and say that they have arrested and are looking for her accomplices: three men and a 16-year-old boy.
    The Italian embassy in Brasilia and the consulate in Recife are following the case. They are in close contact with family members and are providing the necessary assistance to them, foreign ministry sources say.
    Baroli is the second Italian in a matter of weeks to meet a violent death in Brazil.
    On November 17, Ragusa native Pamela Canzonieri, 39, was strangled in her apartment in the Morro di San Paolo tourist resort in the state of Bahia.