Violent protests have broken out in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro following the death of a young man allegedly beaten by police.

Main streets through the tourist area of Copacabana were closed as angry demonstrators from a nearby favela set barricades of tyres alight.

The unrest started after a dancer was killed by police who reportedly mistook him for a drug trafficker.

It comes less than two months before Brazil hosts the football World Cup.

One man was shot dead during the violence on Tuesday night, local media quoted officials as saying. A 12-year-old boy was also reportedly wounded.

'Smoke everywhere'

Witnesses said cars were set ablaze, a police station was attacked and gunfire could be heard from the Pavao-Pavaozinho favela.

"There was smoke everywhere, shots in the street and people racing for their homes," one resident living nearby told AFP news agency.

The protests were sparked by the death of a 26-year-old local man, named as Douglas Rafael da Silva.

The professional dancer was reportedly found dead inside a school earlier on Tuesday.

According to his family, his body was covered in wounds and they accused local police of beating him to death after mistaking him for a member of a local drugs gang.

The circumstances surrounding his death are under investigation, AFP news agency quoted police as saying.

"An on-site report indicates Douglas's injuries are compatible with a death caused by a fall," the police statement said.

Amnesty International says some 2,000 people die every year in Brazil due to police violence.

Restore peace

Huge crowds, demanding an explanation for the death, gathered near the entrance to the favela, which is just a few streets away from Rio's famous beaches and tourist hot-spots, reports the BBC's Wyre Davies.

Pavao-Pavaozinho is one of several Rio favelas or slums that have been part of the recent "pacification" programme, our correspondent adds.

It is an attempt by the city authorities to drive the heavily armed drugs gangs away from the communities and to restore some peace and police authority ahead of the football World Cup in June and July.

But police have admitted to the BBC that they have lost the initiative in many favelas - including parts of Pavao-Pavaozinho.

Some parts of the city are under the control of the drugs gangs, our correspondent says.

Brazil's police, meanwhile, have again been accused of being too ready to resort to violence, as they try to contain the problem.

Residents of Caramujo shanty town near Rio set fire to vehicles on Sunday in protest at the deaths of two people in incidents involving the police.

One of the victims was outside a church with his family on Good Friday when he was hit by a stray bullet.

He was caught up in a shootout between police and suspected drug dealers.

The World Cup will begin in Sao Paulo on 12 June and will end with the final in Rio's famous Maracana stadium on 13 July.