SAO PAULO (AP) - Protesters and Brazilian police clashed in Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and at least three other World Cup cities on Thursday ahead of the first match of soccer's premier event.
Just after the match started, about 300 protesters demonstrating against the World Cup marched along Rio's Copacabana beach and stopped outside the FIFA Fan Fest - a closed and secured area on the beach where hundreds of fans are watching the match on a massive screen.
The protesters were carrying banners with slogans knocking the Cup. The protest was peaceful, but there were worries that violence could break out as several adherents to the anarchist "Black Bloc" tactic were seen in the crowd of demonstrators in Copacabana.
In Sao Paulo, more than 300 demonstrators gathered along a main highway leading to the stadium in Sao Paulo. Some tried to block traffic, but police repeatedly pushed them back, firing canisters of tear gas and using stun grenades. The flow of traffic to the arena was not blocked.
Later, a group of fewer than 100 protesters gathered near a subway stop about 8 miles west of the stadium. No protests reported near the arena itself.
A few protesters suffered injuries after being hit by rubber bullets, while others were seen choking after inhaling tear gas.
"I'm totally against the Cup," said protester Tameres Mota, a university student at the Sao Paulo demonstration. "We're in a country where the money doesn't go to the community, and meanwhile we see all these millions spent on stadiums."
In the crowd were anarchist adherents to the "Black Bloc" tactic of protest, a violent form of demonstration and vandalism that emerged in the 1980s in West Germany and helped shut down the 1999 World Trade Summit in Seattle.
Such Black Bloc protesters have frequently squared off against police in several Brazilian cities in the past year, as a drumbeat of anti-government demonstrations have continued since a massive wave of protests hit Brazil last year.