SAO PAULO (AP) — A group of volunteers working to save people from the floods in southern Brazil claim they were misled into participating in an operation to remove several thousand firearms from the airport of Rio Grande do Sul state’s capital Porto Alegre.

Nicolas Vedovatto, a 26-year-old investor, told The Associated Press that he and three others found out through a WhatsApp group created to muster volunteers that help was needed to save children stranded at the flooded airport. They offered their support, then met a woman identifying herself as Vivian Rodriguêz on May 7 at a gas station just before the planned operation, Vedovatto said.

She informed them that she actually worked for Brazil’s largest gun manufacturer, Taurus Armas, and that they would in fact be rescuing rifles and pistols. Vedovatto said his first impulse was to back out.