The attacker – a 39-year-old man – was immediately arrested at the scene by the PSP.
According to the PSP, the suspect, who was not participating in the protest, approached the location and “He threw an improvised incendiary device like a Molotov cocktail, containing gasoline, towards the people present”.
At the time of the incident, around 500 people were participating in the protest, including children and babies. The device collided with a group of protesters, but did not detonate at the moment of impact.
Even so, the PSP reported, in a statement released on Sunday, that the incident generated “an atmosphere of alarm and disturbance at the site” and some people were hit by the flammable liquid.
“The suspect was detained by the PSP, and was subsequently taken to the police facilities, with the aim of being brought before the competent judicial authority to apply coercive measures considered appropriate”according to the statement.
In addition to the suspect, other people were at the scene, who ended up fleeing and who, according to the PSP, were part of “a group allegedly with an anarchist connotation, with three members subsequently identified in another artery”.
The March for Life, held in Lisbon as part of the Walk for Life, which took place in 12 cities across the country against the voluntary termination of pregnancy, started in Largo do Carmo and continued to the Palácio de São Bento.
The Minister of Internal Administration, Luís Neves, condemned the incident on Sunday, which he classified as a demonstration of “violent extremism”, and praised the “prompt intervention of the PSP”.
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