Automatic Gunfire in Lisbon’s Olivais District Spurs Calls for Stricter Gun Laws

Crackles of gunfire on New Year’s Eve have forced Lisbon to confront a chilling question: how did military-style weapons end up in a residential block just minutes from the city’s airport, and why did no one see them coming?

At a glance

• Automatic bursts filmed in the Bairro Alfredo Bensaúde sparked a city-wide probe.

• Police have identified 30 individuals but made no arrests so far.

• Mayor Carlos Moedas calls the sight of "weapons of war" on Lisbon streets “intolerable.”

• The episode revives memories of the Tancos depot heist and questions about Portugal’s arms-control gaps.

Fear returns to the eastern suburbs

The night of 31 December was supposed to mark a fresh start. Instead, neighbours in the Olivais district were jolted awake by what many first mistook for fireworks. Mobile-phone videos posted online quickly corrected that assumption: the flashes and sharp reports came from automatic firearms, not celebratory rockets. By dawn, officers from the Divisão de Investigação Criminal were combing stairwells and rubbish bins for casings while rapid-intervention units sealed off adjoining streets.

Residents told reporters they felt “caught between a party and a war zone.” One mother described dragging her children away from the windows as tracer-like streaks lit up the courtyard. "We never imagined Kalashnikov-type rifles in a council estate," she said, declining to give her name for fear of reprisals.

What the investigation has uncovered

So far, detectives have traced the gunfire to a cluster of flats often cited in PSP briefings as a hotspot for drug trafficking and illegal gambling. According to a senior officer contacted by our newsroom, the working theory is that the weapons were borrowed—possibly rented—from a network that specialises in "short-term arming" of criminal groups for intimidation displays. No firm link has been made to extremist cells or organised thefts from the military, but the ballistics profile matches ordnance "not available on the civilian market," the official added.

Police sources confirm:

• 30 people were formally identified in the early-January sweep.

• Forensic teams recovered dozens of 7.62 mm casings consistent with assault rifles.

• Preliminary analysis suggests at least two different weapon systems were fired.

The lack of immediate arrests reflects the Portuguese legal requirement for stronger evidentiary chains before preventive detention. Investigators are now waiting on DNA swabs and fingerprint traces lifted from the spent shells.

Political fallout at Lisbon City Hall

Mayor Carlos Moedas moved quickly to reassure uneasy voters, declaring the episode "absolutely unacceptable" and promising a "visible, constant and permanent" police presence. City councillors from across the spectrum supported the call, though opposition members accused the administration of under-investing in public-housing security upgrades.

Behind closed doors, officials are debating whether to expand the network of CCTV smart cameras already piloted in parts of the capital. The proposal faces push-back from privacy advocates who warn of mission creep and potential misuse of biometric data.

A pattern—or isolated scare?

Portugal’s homicide rate remains one of the lowest in Europe, yet sporadic arms discoveries undermine that record. Analysts still recall:

• The 2017 Tancos robbery, when anti-tank rockets and grenades vanished from an army storehouse.

• A 2019 case in which an elderly Lisbon resident unwittingly stored three sub-machine guns left by a deceased relative.

• Serial street shootings in Marvila and Alta de Lisboa in 2024-25, frequently involving converted pistols and airsoft replicas.

Security researchers note that each incident exposed a different weak link—from lax military inventory systems to porous postal checks that let parcels of weapon parts slip through.

What happens next?

PSP leadership has authorised more surprise sweeps in metro neighbourhoods flagged by intelligence algorithms as potential arms conduits. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Defence plans an internal audit of storage protocols, even though no direct tie has been established between last week’s gunfire and active-duty stockpiles.

For residents of Olivais, the priority is painfully simple: reclaiming the right to open their windows without fearing a stray bullet. "We don’t care where the guns came from," said a shopkeeper while installing reinforced shutters. "Just make sure they disappear—for good."