A man who tried to attack Brazil’s Supreme Court in the capital Brasilia on Wednesday evening has died after apparently detonating the explosives he was carrying.
Police have named the man as Francisco Wanderley Luiz, who stood unsuccessfully in council elections for ex-President Jair Bolsonaro’s Liberal Party (PL).
Bystanders said they heard two explosions at around 19:30 local time (22:30 GMT), the second of which is believed to have killed Luiz.
Nobody else was hurt in the incident, officials said.
The explosions caused particular alarm because of where they occurred, on Praça dos Três Poderes – the square in the capital where the Supreme Court, the presidential palace and Congress are located.
The Praça dos Três Poderes was the scene of mass disorder in January 2023, when supporters of Jair Bolsonaro ransacked the buildings days after President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva had been sworn into office.
Brazil’s solicitor general, Jorge Messias, described Wednesday’s incident as a deliberate attack.
Police said the first blast came from a car which belonged to Luiz.
Shortly afterwards, a security guard saw a man carrying a rucksack throw a cloth over a statue representing the Lady of Justice, which is located in front of the building housing the Supreme Court.
The guard said that when he approached him, the man opened his shirt to reveal what looked like explosives strapped to the man’s body.
According to the security guard, the man lobbed something at the building, lay down on the floor and appeared to set off an explosive device he had placed underneath his neck.
Military police officers who secured the scene said the man “had apparently taken his own life with explosives”.
Sniffer dogs and bomb disposal robots were used to secure the area and the Supreme Court building was quickly evacuated.
Local media reported that President Lula had left the area shortly before the blasts occurred.
Justice Minister Ricardo Lewandowski said police were investigating the possible motive behind the attack which came just days before Brazil is due to host the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro and a scheduled visit to Brasilia by the Chinese president, Xi Jinping.
Police have since revealed that Luiz was 59 years old and originally from Rio do Sul, in southern Santa Catarina state, where he had stood as a councillor for Liberal Party in 2020 but received just 98 votes.
The attack was widely condemned, including by members of the Liberal Party.
Jair Bolsonaro’s adviser, Fabio Wajngarten, wrote on X: “There are crazy people everywhere, across all political spectrums, supporters of all teams, of all beliefs and religions.”
Bolsonaro himself called for an “environment of unity,” saying that Brazil needed to “once again cultivate an environment suitable for different ideas to confront each other peacefully”.
Brasilia’s Deputy Governor Celina Leão said Luiz “could have been a lone wolf, like others we’ve seen around the world” but that police would carry out a thorough investigation.
