Brazil police arrest teen in Nazi armband after thwarted school bomb attack

SAO PAULO  — Police in Brazil arrested a teenager accused of trying to attack a school with explosives while wearing a Nazi armband Monday in a small city outside Sao Paulo.

No one was injured in the incident in Monte Mor, a municipality of 56,000 residents about 120 kilometers (75 miles) northwest of Sao Paulo, the city hall said in a statement.

Sao Paulo police said the 17-year-old was arrested with explosives and a hatchet, and that he had been filmed removing these items from a car parked outside the school. Police also said they seized an airsoft gun and Nazi propaganda at the teenager’s home.

The Monte Mor city government published a photo of the suspect wearing a Nazi armband when he was arrested.

School attacks are uncommon in the South American nation, but have happened with somewhat greater frequency in recent years.

On Nov. 26, a former student armed with a semiautomatic pistol and a revolver killed four people and wounded 12 in two schools in the small town of Aracruz in Espirito Santo state in southeastern Brazil. He had a swastika pinned to his vest and had been planning the attacks for two years, police said.