Portugal: police apologise after being filmed beating father and grandfather in front of child

Police in Portugal are being investigated after a football fan attending a match with his two sons and father was brutally beaten with truncheons in an incident captured on video.

Benfica supporter Jose Magalhaes was attending a match in the northern city of Guimaraes with his two sons and father. He said police allowed the group to leave early as one was feeling unwell because of the crush and they sat outside on a wall where one son had a drink of water.

Magalhaes says the police asked him why he had taken his children to a match where there might be violence. He said they should be worried about the crush inside the stadium. At this point one policeman, Filipe Silva, punched his father, then laid into him as he was on the ground as his child screamed "Dad!"

At one point a child runs away and another policeman runs after him and tries to pick him up as he cries.

It later emerged the policeman had used a metal rod rather than the usual wooden truncheon to conduct the beating.

Filipe Silva is said to have claimed in court that Magalhaes spat at him, a claim he denies. Now the officer is being investigated for alleged abuse of power. The whole force is also being investigated over its actions at the ground by a governmental department similar to Britain's Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC).

Magalhaes and his family were at the ground celebrating Benfica's winning the Portuguese league title. Now they have been invited to watch the last match of the season as guests of the club in Lisbon, and his sons will be allowed on the pitch as the trophy is presented.

In a separate development Benfica criticised some of their fans for rioting in Lisbon following the club's winning the league. Police were pelted with bottles and stones and riot police had to move in to clear the streets.