The protestors, most of them youngsters, brandishes placards and banners bearing phrases such as 'Punishment for crimes of police racism and brutality' and 'We want justice. End police violence'.


According to Mamadou Ba, director of the anti-racism campaign group SOS Racismo, who also attended the demonstration, its aim was to "demand that the police who attacked the young people of Cova da Moura are made responsible for their crimes".


Last Thursday five youngsters aged between 23 and 25 were detained after they - according to police - "tried to invade" Alfragide police station, after the detention of another youngster, also from Cova da Moura.


The five detainees were later taken to the local hospital in a condition that, according to Ba, showed that they had been "very ill treated".


A police spokesman said that the youngsters had only slight injuries, resulting from their having "resisted detention".


During the police operation, officers fired rubber bullets to try to disperse local residents who were protesting at the way the first youngster had been treated. A women who was on her own balcony was hit by three of the bullets, according to Ba.


The Inspectorate-General of Home Affairs has in the meantime announced that it will investigate the police actions.