LISBON, Jan. 22 (Xinhua) -- Portugal's Public Security Police (PSP) summoned reinforcements on Tuesday after violent clashes broke out between police officers and protesters in Lisbon and Setubal on Monday night.
Members of the PSP's Special Forces Unit (UEP) are to report for duty at police stations in neighborhoods deemed vulnerable to mounting tensions between the police and marginalized communities.
The PSP reported that 11 rubbish bins and four cars were set alight in Odivelas and Povoa de Santo Adriao, suburbs on Lisbon's northern outskirts, on Monday night.
In Setubal, a town 50 km south of Lisbon, a police station in the Bela Vista neighborhood was attacked with Molotov cocktails.
The incidents came after a protest in Lisbon city center resulted in a number of confrontations.
The protesters had gathered to demonstrate against police violence following ugly scenes in Seixal, a town on the opposite side of the River Tagus to Lisbon on Sunday night.
The PSP had been called to an argument involving two women in the Bairro da Jamaica neighborhood. Local men reacted angrily to perceived police heavy-handedness and officers were pelted with stones.
At Monday's protest, four people were arrested on suspicion of having thrown those stones.
The PSP said there was nothing to indicate the incidents in Seixal, Lisbon and Setubal were related.
Nevertheless, reinforcements have been called for in an atmosphere of heightened tension.
