Police arrest Columbia students, clear occupied building in campus unrest

NEW YORK, United States — Dozens of helmeted police flooded Columbia University's campus in the heart of New York City on Tuesday to evict a building occupied by pro-Palestinian student protesters and detain demonstrators.

Police climbed into Hamilton Hall via a second floor window they reached from a laddered truck, before leading handcuffed students out of the building into police vans.

The hall had been occupied at dawn by demonstrators who vowed they would fight any eviction, as they protested the soaring death toll from Israel's war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

The action came as university administrators around the United States have struggled for weeks to contain pro-Palestinian demonstrations on dozens of campuses.

In a letter addressed to the New York Police Department, Columbia University president Minouche Shafik said that the occupation of the school building was being led by "individuals who are not affiliated with the University" and asked "NYPD's help to clear all individuals from Hamilton Hall and all campus encampments."

She also asked the police to remain on campus through at least May 17, "to ensure encampments are not reestablished." Commencement is scheduled for May 15.

Writing on Instagram, the protesters slammed Shafik's statement, saying "her use of the words 'care' and 'safety' are nothing short of horrifying."

The weeks of demonstrations -- the most sweeping and prolonged unrest to rock US college campuses since the Vietnam war protests of the 1960s and 70s -- have already led to several hundred arrests of students and other activists.

Earlier, protesters at Columbia were seen using ropes to hoist crates of supplies up to the building's second floor, apparently signaling the students had planned to hunker down.

President Joe Biden's White House had sharply criticized the seizure of Hamilton Hall, with a spokesman saying it was "absolutely the wrong approach."

"That is not an example of peaceful protest," the spokesman added.

Former US president Donald Trump lamented the "anti-Semitism that's just pervading our country," and slammed Biden, his rival in the November presidential election for inaction.

"Biden has to do something. Biden is