'I could see the writhing limbs of two bodies being burned alive': My hell living in Sao Paolo's drug-infested Cracolandia... and how I crawled past the rats to get out alive

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Rozana Ramos' first night on the streets were spent in the glow of the fire engulfing two writhing bodies, people burnt alive for the amusement of passing teenagers.

They knew - and the 16-year-old Rozana would learn - that the authorities would never pursue them, relieved to have two drug-addled 'zombies' off their hands.

It was a harsh introduction to the streets of Sao Paolo's Cracolandia - a place quite literally named for the drug which had ruined so many of its inhabitants' lives.

Police said the streets here were full of the living dead - a place where killings, mutilations and child prostitution were the norm, where it is impossible to distinguish whether the emaciated residents are boys or girls, adults or children.

Few ever escape. Rozana is one of those who did - and now this remarkable woman has written down her story, detailing her unbelievable journey from a street child in Cracolandia to a successful businesswoman in Hertfordshire.

Terrifying: Rozana Ramos found herself living on the streets at 16, trying to survive in one of Sao Paolo's most notorious - and dangerous - areas, Cracolandia, literally, land of crack

Death: The first night, she watched two people burn to death next to where she slept. It was a harsh - but accurate - introduction to the violence of Cracolandia. She has now written a book chronicling her horrifying experiences - and her remarkable escape from the streets

True story: Rozana has told the story of her life in a new book. Picture posed by model. 

Rozana arrived in Sao Paolo in 1989, fleeing an abusive childhood which had seen her sexually assaulted, forced into servitude and abandoned to die.

Shoeless and wearing a green jumper which she wouldn't take off for the next three years.

She was taken to Cracolandia by Hiago, a gang leader who first tried to rob her, before rescuing her.

'He said that if I stayed another night on the street on my own I would be killed or abducted,' Rozana recalled. 'It was safer to go with him.'

His base was Cracolandia, a god-forsaken place built out of a disused bus station near Luz. To this day, officials describe its inhabitants as 'zombies', the living dead - an area controlled by gangs, a 'no go' territory for the authorities.

'I could make out the forms of drug-addled bodies slumped on the streets,' she said.

'They were piled up arrangements of skin and bones, most had no teeth. It was impossible to distinguish boys from girls, children from adults.

'Hiago kept me close to him. He was all I had for protection. I knew instinctively that I was here to stay.'

That night, the bewildered and scared Rozana found a gap to sleep between the addicts that lined the filthy pavements. 'I couldn't tell if they were dead or alive. Those who weren't unconscious were openly smoking crack or defecating where they stood.

Tough: Rozana was taken in by a gang leader, who taught her how to survive.'Most people live in Cracolandia a few years and then they are dead. You don't survive there,' she said

Malnourished: The first night, she had to find somewhere to sleep in amongst the other people living on the street, 'piled up arrangements of skin and bones, most had no teeth. It was impossible to distinguish boys from girls, children from adults,' she recalled

On the edge: To survive, she started to deliver drugs and guns for the dealers who ruled the streets. Pictured (and above): Sao Paolo's Cracolandia in 2014

'I drifted into sleep but was jolted awake by a commotion nearby and the acrid smell of burning. People were screaming out for help as they looked down on a fireball and tried in vain to extinguish the flames.

'At first I thought someone was burning furniture, but as I looked closer I could make out the writhing limbs of two bodies, being burned alive. Some rich kids had driven past and thrown a petrol bomb just feet from where I slept. My heart was beating so hard, I thought I would collapse. After that the fear of being burned alive never left me.

'The police didn't care. They were grateful that someone had helped in their job to eradicate the 'vermin' that taints my country. They take away kids in the night to kill or torture. In the mornings I'd see they'd cut off a child's ear or finger for the hell of it.'

In order to survive, Hiago taught her to rob. But it was enough to survive on the tough streets of Cracolandia, and eventually the streets' drugs trade drew even Rozana in, and she started to deliver drugs and guns for dealers who would be only too willing to kill her if she failed to do their bidding.

'In Cracolandia, if a drug dealer tells you to do something, you do it.'

But even bending to the will of the dealers did not guarantee survival.

'When you live in a place like Cracolandia, you and the rat are on the same level,' she explains.

'Most people live in Cracolandia a few years and then they are dead. You don't survive there.'

'Without Hiago's protection, I would have been dead,' Rozana added.

'Another girl in our gang, Roza, was just 10 years old. One day I woke up to find she'd disappeared. We never saw her again.

'Out of our original group only Hiago, myself and one other survived. Every day one of our number would disappear and a new one would join.'

Vermin: 'When you live in a place like Cracolandia, you and the rat are on the same level,' Rozana said. 'Most people live in Cracolandia a few years and then they are dead'

Rescue came when she was out begging.

'I was really dirty and rough, and one lady stopped and said, 'Rozana, is that you?''

That woman was Stephanie, a travel agent who had offered the young girl a job years earlier - a job she turned down because she was too ashamed to reveal she was living on the streets.

Offered a new job, it was a fresh start - but Cracolandia was not willing to release her from its grasp just yet.

Still unable to afford housing on her new wage, Rozana took up the offer of one of her drugs' customers to sleep in the basement of a building where he worked as a security guard. In exchange she agreed to provide him with drugs which she paid for herself.

'I'd shower at work, dress in my clean clothes and then in the evenings I'd change back into my homeless clothes and make my face dirty so that no one would suspect I was preparing to leave.'

But Rozana was smart, and worked her way up to merchandising director for Brazil - allowing her to finally escape for good.

Rescue: But her journey off the streets began one day when she ran into a woman who offered her a job, and she began to work her way up - but there was still more horror to come

Kidnapped: She was drugged and held in a room by a police officer, who she believed would kill her - and had killed before. She managed to trick him into releasing her, however

Yet, Rozana says, fate took another evil turn. She was drugged and kidnapped by a police officer who kept her prisoner in his apartment for three months. He chained her by the ankle and subjected her to unspeakable acts of depravity. She found hairs and bloodstains of other girls held captive before her, their initials carved in the wall behind the bed. She knew he intended to kill her.

Once again her survival instinct kicked in.

'I pretended I was in love with him and wanted to marry him. Soon he began to trust me enough to leave me unchained and one day I jumped out of the window to the ground below and ran from that place.'

Refusing to be defeated by her ordeal, Rozana returned to work and in 2000 was offered a position in the UK as an international representative.

Now running a successful cleaning company, she lives in Hertfordshire in a £400,000 three-bedroom home with her two teenage children she had with the Scottish ex-husband she met when she first arrived in London.

It's a world away from the one she spent her own teenage years in.

But the Olympics have brought back some dark memories: Rio has its own Cracolandia, less than a mile from Maracana Stadium.

It is described as the most hopeless place imaginable and press reports of crack addiction and prostitution are almost identical to Rozana's lurid descriptions. According to locals, discarded bottles and cans left behind by Olympics' tourists will be collected and turned into cash at a recycling centre. The money, she says, will go straight back into drugs.

Now, as the world enjoys the Paralympics, Rozana wants to highlight the plight of those who are still struggling so close to the glitz of the Games.

Memories: Later Rozana came to the UK, where she built a successful business. But the recent Olympics have reminded her of her violent past - especially because Rio's own Cracolandia is just a mile from the Maracana stadium (pictured)

Opening eyes: 'People should not be ignorant of the unimaginable horrors that go on behind the scenes every minute of every day,' she told MailOnline

Anger: 'There is nothing glamorous about children lying in fear every night that they will burned alive or abducted,' she said. 'Where there is such national pride, there should also be shame.'

'The glory of the Games is transient,' she said. 'People should not be ignorant of the unimaginable horrors that go on behind the scenes every minute of every day.

'People are dying because there is no food on the table. Parents hand out their children to be sexually abused in order to make money to provide for their younger kids.

'There is nothing glamorous about children lying in fear every night that they will burned alive or abducted. Where there is such national pride, there should also be shame.'

• Street Girl, A True Story by Rozana McGrattan. Published by Pen Works Media. Available at Waterstones and on Amazon