'Hero' Brazilian policewoman to protect England team during 2014 FIFA World Cup

Brazil's top woman police officer will reportedly guard the England football team from drug lords and kidnappers during the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil.

The team is booked into the luxury Royal Tulip Hotel, half a mile from a notorious Rio shanty town that is home to drug lords and kidnappers, with Steven Gerrard and Wayne Rooney being prime targets for a ransom.

According to the Daily Star, police have brought in Major Pricilla de Oliveira Azevedo, who became a hero after surviving a kidnapping herself and then tracking down her abductors, who will patrol the area with a heavily-armed team.

Azevedo, who received an International Women Of Courage Award last year, said that there would not be any different arrangements made this year from the times whenever a national team visits a different place, although she added that she would use her experience of escaping a murderous gang despite being tied up and locked.

Rio is one of the crime capitals of the world, with a staggering 4,041 murders there last year and 406 people killed in one month alone, with the report adding that kidnappings have also doubled in the city in the past 12 months, with high profile stars top of the list, the report added.