After three years of frozen pay from the government, military police in the the Brazilian state of Espírito Santo went on strike on Friday.

Stringer . / Reuters

Since then, the situation has rapidly deteriorated to the point that the local authorities have requested assistance from the federal government and from the Armed Forces in its attempt to contain the wave of violence spreading through the state, and particularly in the state's Vitória region.

Between Friday and Monday, businesses were looted, buses were set on fire, robberies occurred, and 52 homicides were committed, setting off a virtual curfew in the state's capital.

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The protesting officers have spent the last three years without receiving so much as an adjustment for inflation in their salaries. Families and friends of the military police — which serves as the main police force in Brazil — picketed in front of barracks, just to make sure that the strikers stayed put.

But there are at least ten thousand residents per striking officer and only 2,342 civil police officers for the whole state. With nobody patrolling the streets, the situation turned grim fast.

Security cameras recorded acts of hideous violence committed without intervention.

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At the forensic medical unit, dead bodies pile up in the hallways.

Divulgação/SindPol

According to Jorge Emílio Leal, the president of the Civil Police Union, or SindPol, 52 people were assassinated between last Friday and noon on Monday. That number hit 62 by mid-afternoon. In comparison, Leal told BuzzFeed Brasil, there were just two homicides per day in mid-January.

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Police records show that between 12:20 a.m. and 9:32 a.m. on Monday alone, 27 people were killed.

Divulgação/SindPol

With violence filling the streets, the police were nowhere to be found.

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According to the SindPol, deaths of all kinds have been recorded, from deadly assaults to double homicide slaughters.

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This post was translated from Portuguese.