Law enforcement officers watch on during a protest on West Florissant Avenue in Ferguson, Missouri AFP
Reuters/Ferguson
Police came under "heavy gunfire" and 31 people were arrested, authorities said on Tuesday, during racially charged protests in Ferguson, Missouri sparked by the fatal shooting of an unarmed black teenager by a white policeman 10 days ago.
"Not a single bullet was fired by officers despite coming under heavy attack (on Monday night)," State Highway Patrol Captain Ron Johnson told a news conference.
"Our officers came under heavy gunfire," in one area, he said, and riot police had confiscated two guns from protesters and what looked like a petrol bomb (molotov cocktail).
Demonstrations, mostly peaceful but with spasms of violence by smaller groups, have flared since Michael Brown, 18, was shot dead during an incident with a policeman in a patrol car while walking down a residential street in Ferguson on Aug. 9.
An overnight curfew has been imposed and the National Guard, the U.S. state militia, has been deployed in the St. Louis suburb of 21,000 people to stop looting and burning that have punctuated the protests and stirred questions about U.S. race relations.
Missouri state police with an African-American in charge, Johnson, have taken over security efforts from mostly white local police, widely accused of using excessive force against blacks, and President Barack Obama and civil rights leaders have appealed for calm while a federal investigation proceeds.
Johnson, commanding state police now overseeing efforts to reinstate order, told CNN that two people were shot within the crowd, but not by police, and were taken to hospital.
Local broadcast media said on Twitter that one person was shot in the hand and taken to an area hospital and that another man rushed to a police line holding his side saying he had been shot. Reuters could not confirm the reports.
The clashes between riot police and protesters on Monday night occurred after hours of demonstrations that were mostly peaceful, Reuters witnesses said.
Police had closed a roadway to traffic to provide a path for marches but said a smaller group within the larger crowd hurled bottles, rocks and petrol bombs at officers standing near armored vehicles. Police responded by firing gas-filled canisters and a noise cannon to try to disperse the throng.
There have been peaceful protests over Brown's killing elsewhere in the United States including in St. Louis, New York, Seattle and Oakland. Johnson said some of the arrested protesters had come from California and New York.
Brown was shot by policeman Darren Wilson, 28, who is now on paid leave, in hiding and under criminal investigation.
Ferguson police quoted Wilson, the 28-year-old officer who shot Brown, as saying he had asked Brown and a friend to move off the street where they were walking onto the sidewalk. Wilson reported that Brown reached into his patrol car and struggled for his gun when the officer fired the initial shot.
International / US/Latin America
US police come under gunfire, 31 arrested in Missouri racial unrest
