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State of emergency declared as protests continue over death of George Floyd in Minneapolis

REUTERS
REUTERS

A state of emergency has been declared as the US city of Minneapolis braced for more protests over the death of a black man after he was pinned down by police.

Minnesota’s state governor Tim Walz also called in the National Guard on Thursday as looting broke out amid the unrest following George Floyd’s death days earlier.

Scattered rioting reached for miles across the city yesterday and another protest was announced for Thursday evening near county offices in downtown Minneapolis.

Mr Floyd gasped for breath during his arrest on Monday in which an officer kneeled on his neck for almost eight minutes. In footage recorded by a bystander, Mr Floyd could be heard pleading that he could not breathe until he slowly stopped talking and moving.

Four Minneapolis police officers were fired on Tuesday after the footage emerged. Hours after the officers’ dismissals were announced, thousands of protesters, many wearing face masks, filled the streets close to the scene where the incident took place.

Some stores in Minneapolis and the suburbs closed early on Thursday, fearing more rioting, as the city shut down its light-rail system and planned to stop all bus service out of safety concerns.

Around midday, the violence spread a few miles away to the St Paul's Midway neighbourhood, where police said 50 to 60 people rushed the store attempting to loot it.

Police and state patrol squad cars later blocked the entrance, but the looting then shifted to shops along nearby University Avenue, one of St Paul's main commercial corridors, and other spots in the city.

St Paul spokesman Steve Linders said authorities have been dealing with unrest in roughly 20 different areas throughout the city.

"Please stay home. Please do not come here to protest. Please keep the focus on George Floyd, on advancing our movement and on preventing this from ever happening again. We can all be in that fight together," St Paul Mayor Melvin Carter tweeted.

The protests that began Wednesday night and extended into Thursday were more violent than Tuesday's, which included skirmishes between officers and protesters but no widespread property damage or looting.

Mayor Jacob Frey appealed for calm. "Please, Minneapolis, we cannot let tragedy beget more tragedy," he said on Twitter.

Fire crews responded to about 30 intentionally set blazes during the protests, including at least 16 structure fires, and multiple fire trucks were damaged by rocks and other projectiles, the fire department said. No one was hurt by the fires.

Protests also spread to other US cities. In California, hundreds of people protesting Mr Floyd's death blocked a Los Angeles freeway and shattered windows of California Highway Patrol cruisers.

Agencies contributed to this report

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