BRAZIL’S federal police are threatening to stage a nationwide strike during the month-long World Cup if the country’s government does not increase their pay and improve working conditions.

Officers held a protest rally on Wednesday outside the Rio de Janeiro concert hall where national team coach Luiz Felipe Scolari was announcing his squad for the tournament which begins on June 12.

They have since made it clear they are ready to extend their action throughout the tournament which will be hosted in 12 cities, including Rio.

About 50 protesters covered their mouths with red scarves and held banners. They stood next to a life-sized inflatable white elephant that symbolised the government spending and the high cost of hosting the World Cup in Brazil, which is still struggling with deficient public services.

“We gave all possible deadlines,” said federal police union president Andre Vaz de Mello. “If we don’t see a government response to change things, we will stop working during the World Cup.”

Communications director Renato Deslandes of the National Federation of Federal Police Officers, said: “Federal agents are the only category of workers whose salary has been frozen for the last five years. We are not looking for a real salary increase, but a re-adjustment in accordance with inflation during those five years.” He added that at least 40 per cent of the force had taken part.

Food prices have risen by 6.15 per cent in the 12 months ending in March. 

Deslandes said police salaries were now worth 35 per cent less than in 2009. The police are paid between 7,500 and 12,800 reais (£2,000-3,400) a month before tax and social security contributions.

Last month, thousands of soldiers were deployed to Bahia to maintain order after police went on strike for two days over pay.

At Rio’s Copacabana Beach, other protesters lined up footballs with red and black crosses on the sand, showing photos of victims who have been killed or injured, many of them children hit by stray bullets, in gunfights between gangs and authorities supposedly “pacifying” the city’s poorest areas.