Eviction at Pinheirinho shanty town near São Paulo erupts in violence again as community claims people have died

This article is more than 8 years old

This article is more than 8 years old

Violent clashes between police and slum residents in Brazil have entered a second day, after around 2,000 officers stormed a community near the country's economic capital, São Paulo, to evict around 6,000 residents.

The operation to clear the Pinheirinho shanty town in São José dos Campos, a city around 50 miles from São Paulo, began at around 6am on Sunday morning. Without warning, black-clad troops swept into the area carrying metal shields and pump-action shotguns. Skirmishes broke out and vehicles were set alight.

Television pictures showed terrified mothers fleeing the slum clutching their babies. Police helicopters circled above burning cars and homes as troops were pelted with rocks and responded with rubber bullets and tear gas.

Throughout the day, riot police and angry locals fought pitched battles, and protesters temporarily blocked part of the Via Dutra, the motorway that links São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. "They didn't even let us breathe," one weeping woman told Globo TV as she fled the area carrying a young girl. "They have thrown our whole lives away."

"I was scared," José Silva Santos, a cook who lived in the community, told the news website G1. "The guys [police] arrived ordering us out and there was only enough time to get my ID and my work uniform."

Throughout Sunday, social media sites filled with apocalyptic reports of a supposed "massacre", taking place within the community. One email, sent to international media, claimed there were reports that people had been killed. Brazil's biggest TV network, Globo, described the eviction as "an operation of war".

In an interview with local radio, Colonel Manoel Messias Mello, the head of the region's military police, denied there had been any loss of life.

"The operation was designed to protect lives, to guarantee people's physical integrity," he said, blaming the violence on "vandals" and claiming his forces had seized one shotgun, one handgun and drugs.

Mello said police were investigating reports that one man had been shot in the back during a "confrontation" with local security officers. Several people were reported to have been injured during the clashes, including the community's lawyer and a one police officer, but no deaths were confirmed.

Located on the impoverished outskirts of São José dos Campos, a city of around 850,000 inhabitants, Pinheirinho sprung up in February 2004, when groups of homeless workers occupied abandoned land belonging to a bankrupt investment firm.

Despite an ongoing legal battle over the land's ownership and grinding poverty, the community reportedly flourished with locals building churches, football pitches, libraries and shops.

On Monday morning, there were reports that clashes between police and locals had erupted again at around 9am. Fifteen people were reportedly arrested overnight.

Evictions are a common occurrence in Brazil, a country with a huge housing deficit and where the number of slum dwellers continues to rise despite an ongoing economic boom. Figures released late last year by the government showed that 11.5 million Brazilians live in shanty towns or sub-standard and often illegal housing, compared with 4.5 million in 1991.

But the scale of the police operation – and the violence it triggered – pushed the plight of Pinheirinho's residents on to the front pages. Human rights activists across Brazil have announced protests against the eviction.

Speaking on Monday morning, São Paulo's state governor, the former presidential candidate Geraldo Alckmin, reportedly ducked questions about the nature of the operation. "The police are merely executing a legal order," he told the Record TV network.