Occupy Oakland protesters clash with police

Clashes broke out between masked protesters and police in Oakland in California early on Thursday after a day of peaceful anti-Wall Street protests at one of the busiest ports in the United States.

Reuters/Stephen Lam

The demonstrations were mainly peaceful until around midnight, when dozens
of protesters in the city centre hurled rocks and bottles, briefly occupied a vacant building and torched a barricade.

Riot police responded with tear gas.

The violent protesters appeared to be a breakaway group from the much larger Occupy Wall Street movement which has been camped out near Oakland's City Hall, many of whom rushed to the scene to urge calm.

David HD/Flickr

The Oakland Tribune reported that one protester was injured and later taken away by ambulance, and that police had arrested 30 to 40 people.

California's port of Oakland, which does 59 percent of its trade with Asia and is the fourth busiest US port, had sent staff home early on Wednesday and shut down as hundreds of protesters besieged the docks.

Thousands of people had rallied in the city centre during the day to support a strike called after police fired tear gas while clearing a protestors' camp last week, injuring one person.

"Celebrate the death of capitalism," read a banner on a makeshift altar decorated with flowers.

Brother Muziki, an elementary school teacher, was helping carry a banner which read "Bail out schools and services, not banks!"

Port authorities said they hoped operations would get back to normal on Thursday.