A gun-toting policewoman has become a social media sensation because she protects people on the dangerous streets of Brazil by day and posts scantily-clad bikini snaps by night.

Mari Ag, 30, is a highway patrol cop in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, one of the most dangerous countries in the world that has nearly 60,000 murders a year.

The toned policewoman decided to pursue a career as a police officer when she was a child as she wanted to help protect her community from the criminals and gangs that she says is 'so powerful and terrible in Brazil.'

She says her country is in a state of civil war and protecting innocent people is her goal.

She said: 'The place I work has the worse criminality in the city, so we fight against heavily armed gangs that rob, kill, rape and terrify the community and the users of the federal highway.'