http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1051704/250-arrested-Republican-Convention-protest-descends-violence.html
Riot police arrested around 250 people outside the Republican presidential convention last night after a protest descended into violence.
Around 10,000 had gathered for a peaceful march calling for an end to the Iraq war which eventually erupted into pitched battles between a breakaway group and officers.
Police used pepper spray and smoke bombs to break up the mob while officers on horseback, motorcycles and bicycles chased a group of rock-and bottle-throwing
protesters.
Some, hiding their faces with with black kerchiefs, smashed shop windows, overturned rubbish bins and vandalized police cars.
Others pushed a flaming dumpster into a car with police in it, officers and witnesses said.
The riot, in St Paul, Minnesota, happened a short distance from the XCel Convention Center where Republicans are holding their conference.
Police arrested around 250 of the protesters and some have been charged with offences ranging from trespassing to property damage and assault.
One officer was punched in the back and another was overcome by the heat, St. Paul police chief John Harrington said.
Demonstrators marched from the Minnesota state capitol to the heavily barricaded Xcel Center, where John McCain accepts the Republican presidential nomination later this week.
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