image source, Getty
The uniformed men used gas bombs and rubber bullets to drive away the demonstrators.
The eviction of a building occupied by some 200 families in São Paulo led to clashes between police and homeless people, with gas bombs and stones in the heart of the city, a bus set on fire, injuries and at least 70 detainees.
The incidents began on Tuesday morning, when the police arrived at the old abandoned hotel to evict it by court order and encountered resistance from the occupants, who threw furniture and objects at the uniformed officers.
The uniformed men used gas bombs and rubber bullets to drive away the occupants, but the chaos hardened through several downtown streets. Protesters who, according to the police, joined the evicted, set fire to a bus in front of the Municipal Theater and tried to break the shutters of closed shops.
There were complaints of excessive use of force by police officers. Commander Glauco Silva de Carvalho, responsible for the operation, denied the accusations and maintained that two police officers were injured in the clashes.
The lack of housing has been one of the problems that in recent times ended more protests in São Paulo, with groups that claim the occupation of abandoned buildings as a response to this lack.