Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes said on Thursday that the suicide bomber who tried to get into the top court on Wednesday had intended to blow up the building, casting it as part of a growing wave of attacks on democracy.

The Supreme Court in recent years has become a target for threats by far-right groups and supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro due to its crackdown on the spread of false information.

A failed bomb attack on Brazil's Supreme Court is being probed as a "terrorist act" with possible links to an insurrection last year against President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the country's police chief said Thursday.