Police in Portugal broke up protest camps set up in the city centres of Lisbon and Porto against the country's housing crisis in pre-dawn operations, detaining 31 people. Authorities said seven people were injured during the intervention.
According to Portuguese police, 25 of those detained were held in Lisbon and six in Porto. The police directorate said three of the injured were police officers.
Officials said the operation was carried out over damage to public property, unauthorised demonstrations and the pitching of tents in city centres in breach of existing regulations.
Civil society groups behind the protests disputed the official figures, claiming that 37 people, not seven, were injured during the police intervention.
Housing crisis protests that began in Spain at the end of September have spread to Portugal. Demonstrators in Lisbon and Porto set up tent camps in several squares, modelled on the encampment in Madrid's Sol Square that has been under way since 26 September.
The tents erected in public spaces had sparked debate in Portugal on the grounds that they were illegal, and they had previously been removed several times, either by participants themselves or through police operations.
