More than 100 students have been arrested after police cleared a camp of pro-Palestinian protesters at Columbia University in New York.
The university’s president said that the “extraordinary step” came after multiple warnings and was necessary to provide a safe environment.
Among the participants in the protest was Minnesota politician Ilhan Omar’s daughter, who has been suspended.
Protests have rocked US campuses since the Israel-Gaza war began last year.
Demonstrators constructed an encampment of about 50 tents on campus on Wednesday – and overnight hundreds of students and others rallied with them.
More than 100 had occupied the lawns for over 30 hours, in violation of university rules, New York Mayor Eric Adams told a news conference on Thursday.
The demonstrators were joined by independent presidential candidate Cornel West.
In a statement sent to faculty earlier on Thursday, Columbia University president Dr Nemat Shafik said she had hoped her decision to authorise the New York Police Department to clear the encampment would “never be necessary”.
“The individuals who established the encampment violated a long list of rules and policies,” Dr Shafik said. “Through direct conversations and in writing, the university provided multiple notices of these violations.”
Dr Shafik said she regretted that “all of these attempts to resolve the situation were rejected by the students involved”.
In total, 108 people were arrested at the protest site. Two received trespass summonses and charges of obstruction of government property.
Police had intervened in protests around the university on Wednesday, as Dr Shafik testified about antisemitism before Congress.
The Columbia Spectator, a student newspaper, reported that the swoop by officers marked the first time mass arrests had been made on campus since Vietnam War protests in 1968.
