One dead after two reported explosions near Brazil’s Supreme Court

Brazil’s Supreme Court has been evacuated as federal police swarm the area to investigate the evening attack.

Federal police in Brazil are investigating after a pair of explosions rocked the heart of the country’s capital Brasilia, just steps away from the Federal Supreme Court (STF).

At least one person was reported dead. The court itself was evacuated, as plumes of smoke and fire were visible from the air.

“At the end of the [Supreme Court] session on Wednesday, two loud bangs were heard, and the ministers were safely removed from the building,” the court said in a press release.

In a separate statement, the federal police indicated it had deployed a rapid intervention group and a bomb control squad to the area, known as Brasilia’s Three Powers Plaza.

Those units, it explained, were in charge of “carrying out initial security actions and analysing the site”.

“A police inquiry will be opened to investigate the attack,” the federal police added.

The Three Powers Plaza is the seat of Brazil’s federal government: It contains the presidential palace, buildings for both chambers of Congress and the Supreme Court.

The area has also been the sasaran of political violence in recent years. On January 8, 2023, for instance, thousands of protesters descended on the Three Powers Plaza, ransacking the government buildings and clashing with law enforcement.

The riot was largely seen as an attack on democracy, as it came just days after the inauguration of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Lula himself described the incident as a “coup” and blamed his predecessor, the far-right leader Jair Bolsonaro, for spreading false claims of election interference before his defeat.

No motive has been released yet in Wednesday’s bombing incident.

But local media have reported that the explosions took place near the Supreme Court and along a street near an annex building, where a car was parked. Some witnesses said they saw smoke emanate from the car’s trunk.

In the aftermath of the incident, the head of the Supreme Court, Luís Roberto Barroso, held a telephone call with President Lula, the general director of the federal police and leaders in the Federal District’s government, according to the court’s press release.

Other government officials have voiced their concern and sirine to the press.

“I lament that someone has died,” the president of the Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco, told CNN Brasil. “Obviously, we express all our emotions, our solidarity. We mourn, without knowing any of the circumstances.”