Family pulled from burning beetle

The Brazilian family-of-five, tucked into a beat-up old Volkswagen beetle, made a big mistake driving into a violent mob on the streets of downtown Sao Paulo.

The 2000-strong demonstrators, angry at Brazil's hosting of the football World Cup later this year, on Saturday set up a roadway barricade of torched mattresses to stop traffic.

When the little beetle drove over one of the mattresses, it lit up like a bonfire and the family, including a four-year-old girl, was forced to quickly abandon the car.

Footage of the incident shows a distressed mother fleeing the burning vehicle and her little girl being dragged out from the back seat of the two-door vehicle with the help of protesters and photographers who ran over to assist.

The family appeared to leave unharmed but a man in a white shirt then risked his life by hopping into the VW and trying to drive the car away from the scene in the apparent hope of extinguishing the blaze.

He made it half a block before he too had to bail.

Nearby other demonstrators, covering their faces in black scarves, were seen attacking an empty police car and trying to overturn it.

Police said around 130 people were arrested following the violence.

The protests occurred in several cities throughout Brazil by those opposed to the billions of dollars being spent on the construction of soccer stadiums instead of basic public services like education, transportation and healthcare.

Source: R7

Author: Erin Tennant, Approving editor: Martin Zavan