Adriano accidentally shoots woman in the hand outside Rio de Janeiro nightclub

Brazilian striker Adriano accidentally shot a woman inside his car with a gun belonging to his bodyguard, it was claimed.

Adriano accidentally shoots woman in the hand outside Rio de Janeiro nightclub
It's all going off: Corinthians striker Adriano allegedly discharged a gun in the back seat of his car, wounding his female companion Credit: Photo: GETTY IMAGES

Adriane Cirilo dos Pintos, 20, was wounded in her left hand and required surgery after the incident outside a Rio de Janeiro nightclub.

Ex-Inter Milan forward Adriano, 29, was reportedly leaving a party with four young women at Barra Music club at around 6am on Christmas Eve.

Ms Pinto told police the footballer was fooling around with his bodyguard's .44 calibre pistol in the back seat of his BMW when it accidentally went off.

Adriano, though, has denied her version of events.

"I was in the front seat; the shooting was done in the back seat," he said in a statement reproduced on Globoesporte.

Rio police sergeant Amilton Dias told Brazil's Record TV that the footballer had taken out the gun's magazine and was showing off to the women, who he was taking back to his home, but didn´t realise there was still a bullet lodged inside the barrel.

He said: "The player Adriano, with the gun in his hand, stupidly waved the firearm in the direction of the passengers.

"That's when the shot was discharged accidentally."

He added that the player, who this year won the Brazilian Championship with Sao Paulo giants Corinthians, called an ambulance for Ms Pinto but did not hand himself into police.

Two of the other women who were in the car, both aged 28, later contested Ms Pinto's version of events, claiming she had shot herself in the hand in a deliberate attempt to attract publicity.

Adriano – full name Adriano Leite Ribeiro – spent Christmas Eve being interrogated by police.

He insists that he was sitting in the front passenger seat of the car and never touched the gun, which the bodyguard had placed underneath the driver's seat.

Police said today that tests had been carried out on the hands of both Adriano and Ms Pinto to determine who had been holding the gun, and results would be ready in eight days.

The Barra d'Or Hospital, where Ms Pinto will undergo reconstructive surgery on her hand on Tuesday, said she had suffered a fracture to her index finger but no arteries or tendons had been damaged.

A four-time winner during his spell in Italy with Inter Milan, Adriano's career had gone off the rails in recent times because of problems with his weight, alcohol and depression.

And this weekend's incident was not his first brush with Brazilian authorities.

In 2010, Rio police decided against pressing charges against the player for supposed dealings with drug traffickers because of "lack of evidence".

The investigation began after photos appeared on the internet of the striker holding a rifle, which Adriano later claimed was a toy.

In 2009 he was also accused of buying a motorcycle in the name of his mother and then delivering it to one of the heads of a trafficking gang in a Rio favela.

And last year police decided not to press charges despite "strong indications" the player had transferred the equivalent of £20,000 to one of Rio's most notorious drug lords.

Adriano denied the accusation, saying the money was to buy food baskets for poor families.

In February this year, Adriano's driver licence was suspended after he refused to take a breathalyser test after he was stopped by the police while leaving another nightclub party.