PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — UN peacekeeping troops traded heavy gunfire for more than five hours yesterday with gangs in a slum of the Haitian capital, and at least five people were killed.UN armoured personnel carriers converged on the seaside slum of Cite Soleil early in the morning and fighting quickly erupted between the two sides, according to witnesses.

Later, people who live in the slum showed Associated Press photographers the bodies of five men they said had been killed by fire from the UN troops.

Two others, including a young boy, had gunshot wounds.

In past gun battles in Haiti’s crowded, maze-like slums, people have been struck by crossfire from both sides so it was not possible to confirm who shot the five men.

The UN released a statement saying it had launched a joint operation with Haiti’s National Police in Cite Soleil as part of an effort to fight a recent upsurge in kidnapping and other violence by gangs based in the slum.

UN representatives could not immediately comment on reports of casualties.

UN forces were also seeking to take back control from the gangs of a principal route through the slum at the northern edge of the capital, Port-au-Prince.

It was not immediately known if there were any casualties among the international force, which came to Haiti following the rebellion that ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 2004.