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Police disperse protesters outside Brazil World Cup match

by Reuters
Wednesday, 18 June 2014 00:16 GMT

(Updates number of people arrested and details of demonstration in Rio)

FORTALEZA, Brazil, June 17 (Reuters) - Brazilian police used tear gas and water cannons to disperse a small group of anti-World Cup protesters blocking a road to the stadium where Brazil played against Mexico on Tuesday.

At least 30 people were arrested in the demonstration after the group of about 100 tried to block the main street to the Castelão stadium in the northeastern city of Fortaleza, local police spokesman Fernando Albano told Reuters.

Some masked protesters threw rocks and sticks at buses emblazoned with logos of soccer's governing body FIFA before riot police and an armed vehicle moved in to disperse the crowd, television images showed.

In another demonstration in Rio de Janeiro, police used pepper spray to disperse a crowd of about 100 people and detained at least seven, local police said.

Protests by Brazilians angry about alleged wasteful spending for the World Cup have been tamer than many feared following last year's massive demonstrations during a warm-up tournament, which eroded the popularity of President Dilma Rousseff.

Anti-World Cup protests have broken out in several cities and some have turned violent, but most have attracted only a few hundred people and they appear to be shrinking by the day. (Writing by Alonso Soto; Editing by Todd Benson, Andrew Hay and Ken Wills)

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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