Cops Arrest 200 As LA Protest Camp Is Cleared

Police in riot gear and biohazard suits have cleared anti-capitalism protesters from a camp in Los Angeles, arresting 200 people.

They closed in on the site, which has been occupied for eight weeks, declaring hundreds of protesters congregated around the City Hall to be an "unlawful assembly".

Demonstrators were ordered to disperse or face arrest.

The encampment, aligned with the national Occupy Wall Street movement against economic inequality and the excesses of the financial system, was one of the largest of the West Coast.

At least 20 protesters left the area immediately, carrying tents and other belongings out of the camp, followed by a number of other people escorted out by police after they apparently agreed to leave without resisting.

Officers pulled down and flattened tents and arrested those who refused to go.

City officials had hoped to keep the timing of the eviction secret, but large numbers of police and patrol cars were filmed by local television stations.

One protester, Anthony Candelaria, 21, a Los Angeles college student among the crowd gathered at City Hall, said before the raid began that he planned to "hold the fort down until they drag us out by our feet".

Shortly after the eviction in Los Angeles began, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who had initially welcomed the protesters, issued a statement saying the city was taking a "measured approach to enforcing the park closure".

"We have wanted to give people every opportunity to leave peacefully. I ask that anyone who remains in the park to please leave voluntarily," he said.

In Philadelphia, about 100 Occupy protesters peacefully vacated their camp early on Wednesday after police moved in and warned them they faced arrest unless they left on their own.