• Police fired stun grenades and tear gas to disperse the crowd.
• They put out fires on buses and cars.
• The violence comes amid a surge of post-election violence across the country.

In a surge of post-election violence on the day Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was declared as Brazil’s next president, supporters of outgoing President Jair Bolsonaro tried to attack federal police headquarters in the city.

Witnesses saw Bolsonaro supporters engaging security personnel at police headquarters in Brasilia on Monday night.

Reuters reports that police fired stun grenades and tear gas to disperse the gathering and set fire to buses and cars.

Federal police and capital security are handling “disturbances” near the headquarters.

The unrest began when police arrested Indigenous leader and Bolsonaro supporter José Acácio Serere Xavante on suspicion of anti-democratic protests, according to Brasilia’s public security secretariat.

Since Lula won the election run-off on October 30, Bolsonaro has refused to concede, and his followers have congregated outside military barracks demanding intervention.

Lula and his vice president were certified as election winners on Monday.

Flavio Dino, Lula’s Justice and Public Security Minister, called the attempted takeover of the Federal Police building in Brasilia “wrong.”

Lula, whose inauguration is January 1, cried at his election victory ceremony.

After receiving the official “certificate” naming him the winner, the 77-year-old ex-metalworker was overtaken with emotion and hailed “the boldness of the Brazilian people.”

Bolsonaro hasn’t accepted defeat, but he’s allowed the change to begin.

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