Street brawls and murder have claimed 141 lives so far this Christmas in war-torn Colombia, but the police said on Tuesday that this was better than average.

The guns of the country's guerrilla and illegal paramilitary groups were silent for the Christian festival but blood flowed as usual here as people were killed in robberies, street fights and criminal assaults, said National Police Gen. Jorge Enrique Linares.

But the total of 141 deaths from midday Monday until Christmas morning on Tuesday was lower than feared for a country with 25,000 violent deaths a year -- including thousands of people killed in the country's 37-year war involving far-left and far-right extremist groups.

"Overall the way the Christmas celebrations turned out was positive," Linares said.

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