(Brasilia) The Brazilian federal police announced on Saturday the opening of an investigation after an attempted intrusion at dawn at the Alvorada Palace, the official residence of Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in Brasilia.
Authorities identified on Saturday afternoon “a man suspected of having tried to break into the Alvorada Palace” earlier in the day, the Brazilian federal police said in a statement.
The suspect who fled was then “located in a building near the Alvorada Palace”, where he was arrested, and is currently being interviewed by the police in Brasilia, the press release added.
The authorities are seeking to determine “the circumstances surrounding this attempted intrusion” committed by an individual in a car, specifies the same source.
The vehicle, which was allegedly used during the attempted intrusion, was seized for examination by investigators.
According to local media, the suspect did not intend to invade President Lula’s official residence, but was lost and was probably driving drunk.
The police did not immediately confirm this hypothesis and the press service did not respond to a request from AFP.
According to the Metropoles information site, which revealed the facts, President Lula was at the Alvorada Palace (dawn or dawn in Brazilian) at the time of the attempted intrusion. He had just returned from a trip to Rio.
Still according to the site, a black car drove shortly before 5:45 a.m. local time (3:45 a.m. Eastern time) into the official residence of the Brazilian presidents, located on a peninsula and surrounded by a garden.
Refusing to obey the orders of the guards, the driver continued his course until a metal portcullis which punctured his tires, before fleeing. While trying to arrest him, a security guard fired twice at the car, the site said.