Violence erupts on the streets of Brazil’s largest city Sao Paulo as more than 2,000 demonstrators gathered to protest against the cost of the upcoming soccer World Cup
Security forces were working to restore order in cities across Brazil after violent clashes erupted during protests against the cost of the upcoming soccer World Cup.
Police detained more than 100 protesters in Sao Paulo, where some one-thousand people had taken to the streets.
A number of protesters ran into a nearby hotel but were later brought out and loaded onto police buses.
Earlier, anarchist demonstrators known as “Black Block” attacked an empty police car and tried to overturn it, while others torched a small car and smashed the windows of banks, as they have in previous protests since last year.
Police responded with tear gas and rubber bullets, dispersing the crowd.
The Anonymous Rio protest group organised the protests using social media and called it “Operation Stop the World Cup”.
The group described it as this year’s first act of protest against the football tournament.
Last year, millions of people took to the streets across Brazil complaining of higher bus fares, poor public services and corruption while the country spends billions on the World Cup, which is scheduled to start in June.
Source: APTN