Police use tear gas at massive Brazil anti-government protest

PanARMENIAN.Net - Tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets in Brazil to demonstrate against the government, BBC News reports.

Organisers said 50,000 people - a record number - turned out in Sao Paulo alone for a seventh day of protests against the new President Michel Temer.

Temer took office after Dilma Rousseff was removed from the presidency in an impeachment trial.

The rally began peacefully but police used tear gas, stun grenades and water cannon as clashes broke out at the end.

They said they had been forced to take the measures to avoid vandalism. Several people were reportedly injured including a BBC journalist.

Some protesters responded by throwing bottles and stones at riot police, and building and setting fire to barricades.

Temer said the protests were "small groups, not popular movements of any size".

While at a G20 summit in China, he told reporters: "in a population of 204 million Brazilians, they are not representative."

Brazil's Senate voted to remove Dilma Rousseff from office last week, for manipulating government accounts to hide a shortfall in the government's budget.

It put an end to the 13 years in power of her left-wing Workers' Party. ousseff had denied the charges.