Bolsonaro backers deface Congress in ugly anti-Lula stand

Decked out in the colours of Brazil's national flag, supporters of vanquished ex-president Jair Bolsonaro smashed windows and sowed destruction as they barged into Congress clamouring for "military intervention."

The sea of yellow-and-green clad "bolsonaristas" flooding up the ramps leading to the roof of the modernist Congress building starkly evoked a similar attack: the storming of the US Capitol building in Washington by supporters of then-president Donald Trump -- a Bolsonaro ally -- almost exactly two years ago.

Some forced their way into the legislative offices of the Senate and Chamber of Deputies, leaving defacement in their wake as a mark of hostility to leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, inaugurated exactly a week earlier.

Outside the building, an irate crowd braved the rain and clouds of tear gas to hurl insults and objects at the police.

The crowd was finally dispersed by police, but their demands stayed behind in messages painted onto the facade -- including a call to the military for "Intervention now!"

Backers of far-right Bolsonaro, who left Brazil two days before the end of a controversial term, also stormed the nearby presidential palace and Supreme Court -- all three buildings gathered on the so-called Esplanade of Ministries in the capital.

Outside Congress, the protesters also left a trail of destruction, with police patrol cars vandalised.

Bolsonaro, who like Trump has not conceded his defeat to Lula in October elections, condemned "pillaging and invasions."