Death of man beaten by Carrefour security guards sparks protests in Brazil

The funeral of a black man who died while being beaten by supermarket security guards has been held following protests that echoed those of the racial justice movement in the United States.

On Friday, demonstrators painted "Black lives matter" on the pavement of Paulista Avenue, one of the most famous in Sao Paulo, following a series of protests across the country, many of them at branches of the Carrefour supermarket chain.

Joao Alberto Silveira Freitas, a father of four, was buried wearing a white T-shirt in a coffin draped with the flag of his favourite football team in the city of Porto Alegre.

"I just want justice," his partner, Milena Borges Alves, told Globo news.

"That's all. I just want them to pay for what they did to him."

Military police used pepper spray to disperse crowds outside a supermarket in the northeastern city of Recife.

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The outrage was fed by a widely circulated video showing one guard restraining Mr Freitas as another hit him repeatedly in the face.