<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 1rem;">Brazilian police are investigating after nine bodies -- most charred and at least three belonging to children, according to local media -- were discovered in two rural homes.</span><br></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Five of the bodies were burnt beyond recognition, two partially, and two others not at all, a statement from police in the northeastern Bahia state said Monday.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A child who survived was taken to hospital with severe burns, it added.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Police did not elaborate on the causes of death nor the focus of the criminal investigation.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The bodies were found at two houses in Mata de Sao Joao, some 60 kilometers (37 miles) from the state capital, Salvador.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Police have interviewed neighbors and victims' family members and friends.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The news website G1 evoked the possibility of a settling of scores between rival drug gangs.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Bahia state last year recorded 6,600 murders -- the second highest rate in Brazil at 47.1 per 100,000 inhabitants.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The national average is 23.4 per 100,000 according to a public safety watchdog. AFP</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd24/kh</div>