Baton-swinging police have clashed with anti-war protesters marching on the NATO summit in Chicago, and a lawyers' group representing the demonstrators said at least 12 people were injured, some with head wounds from police batons.
More than 60 people were arrested in a melee at the end of a march attended by at least 3,000 people, according to Sarah Gelsomino of the National Lawyers Guild, which represented protesters and attended demonstrations.
Chicago police did not immediately provide figures on the number of arrests or injures. By dusk the streets had calmed down.
The confrontation began after a 2 1/2 mile march from a Chicago park to near the site of the summit, where leaders of the NATO alliance are discussing the war in Afghanistan.
Police ordered the protesters to disperse or risk arrest. Most of the demonstrators did, but several hundred ignored the order and police moved in.
Hundreds of demonstrators, reporters and photographers were hemmed in by lines of blue-helmeted police, pushing them back with plastic shields.
One young man sat at the side of the street, the back of his head streaming blood. His friends said he was hit by riot police.
"This is what police brutality looks like," said Ryan Zielinski, 23, a protester who said he was hit in the chest with a baton as police pushed protesters back. "All we're trying to do is protest and the police are attacking us."
Authorities said the police had properly warned protesters before the confrontation.
"While there have been some scuffles with individual protesters, the Chicago Police Department has acted professionally and with restraint as protesters refuse to disperse," city spokeswoman Melissa Stratton said.
Reuters reporters saw at least three protesters with head injuries. Another man was holding his eye, and a girl clutched her stomach. Several demonstrators appeared dazed, suffering from exhaustion or heat stroke.
Police estimated the crowd on Sunday at 2,500 to 3,000, although it appeared to be larger.
During the march, a group of black-clad demonstrators darted toward police lines along the route. Some threw water bottles at officers who pushed back and told them to move along.
In what was billed as the biggest rally in the week leading up to the NATO summit, demonstrators included people in festive costumes, a few parents pushing strollers and black-clad protesters carrying signs saying "Anarchists alliance, D.C."
Demonstrators had little chance of being seen by the world leaders and representatives from 60 countries at the meeting of the military alliance. The summit site, the McCormick Place convention center, is inside a security zone guarded by fences. Protesters were kept blocks away from the convention center.
President Barack Obama, who is hosting the summit in his hometown, kicked off the meeting by greeting NATO members one by one. NATO leaders are trying to chart a path out of the unpopular war in Afghanistan.
The Coalition Against NATO-G8, the group behind Sunday's march, wants an immediate end to the U.S. role in the Afghan war. Other protesters decried U.S. defense spending and economic inequality.
VETERANS DISCARD MEDALS
Matt Howard, a former U.S. Marine who served in Iraq, was one of nearly 50 veterans who threw service medals into the street near the summit site in protest.
Vietnam War veteran Ron McSheffery, 61, said, "I'm in total support of stopping NATO and stopping the slaughter of innocent civilians. If we took the money we spent on bombs and put it into green energy, we wouldn't need to keep the sea lanes open" for oil transport.
Before the summit began, five men were arrested on terrorism-related or bomb-making charges. Three of those charged were plotting to attack Obama's campaign headquarters, police stations and other targets, according to court documents. Defense lawyers said the three were entrapped by police informants.
