Occupy Wall Street protestors cleared from symbolic New York square
Police in New York have cleared demonstrators from the symbolic centre of US anti-Wall Street protests signalling a tougher line by the authorities towards the two-month old occupation.
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The city’s Zucotti Park was at the epicentre of a movement that spread to several other US cites and inspired similar action around the world.
In an early morning surprise raid, police wearing helmets pushed groups of protestors into trucks and clean-up crews tore down tents.
New York mayor Michael Bloomberg’s office urged protestors to “temporarily” leave the area saying they could return later.
Early on Monday, riot police had dismantled a similar protest camp in the Californian city of Oakland arresting more than 30 people in the second such action on the West Coast in two days.
The demonstrations against corporate greed and Washington elites have seen an eclectic group of mainly young people set up tents in city squares across the country in what some authorities see as a threat to public safety.
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