Video footage captured the chaotic scenes in Brazil on Sunday as thousands of former president Jair Bolsonaro’s supporters stormed the country’s Congress, presidential palaces and Supreme Court.
In one clip, a lone mounted police officer is pulled from his horse while being struck by rioters armed with long wooden sticks, waving Brazilian flags and dressed in the country’s famous yellow football strip.
The mob continues to beat the police officer as he slumps in his saddle and falls to the ground in the 18-second clip posted by the Eixo Politico news site.
The officer is quickly surrounded by the chanting rioters as he lays prone on the ground and it’s unclear whether he makes it out safely.
In another video posted by the Metropoles news site, pro-Bolsonaro protesters are seen wandering around smoke-filled rooms inside the Planalto Palace in the capital Brasilia, in scenes reminiscent of the January 6 riots at the US Capitol.
A man draped in a Brazilian flag walks through ransacked rooms at the palace, where tables and chairs have been overturned and thick dust and smoke are visible.
Images posted to social media showed vandalised artworks, broken windows and hundreds of protesters on the roof of the Planalto Palace.
Thousands of protesters who refuse to accept Mr Bolsonaro’s defeat in last October’s presidential elections invaded several key government building at 2.30pm local time (12.30pm EST) on Sunday, one week after the inauguration of his successor Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Police used tear gas in a futile attempt to hold the thousands of rioters who had gathered at the Three Powers Square in Brasilia at bay, according to the Associated Press.
The protesters broke through barricades and entered the Supreme Court, the Congress and the presidential palace, which all border the square.
By 5.30pm local time (3.30pm EST), security forces had regained control of the Supreme Court and the presidential palace.
But hundreds of protesters remained inside the Brazilian Congress, the AP reported.
Addressing the riots on Sunday afternoon, Mr Lula said there was “no precedent in the history of our country” for what had taken place in Brasilia.
He said the violent scene were the “acts of vandals and fascists”, and vowed to locate and punish the perpetrators.
Mr Bolsonaro, who left Brazil for Florida last week, has yet to respond on social media.
