Tear gas, fire bombs as police declare Portland protest a 'riot'

Police declared the rally in Portland a "riot" after protesters hurled Molotov cocktails at them, and they responded with a barrage of tear gas to disperse the crowd, on Saturday.

Police arrested dozens of people as the western US city marked 100 days since Black Lives Matter protests erupted against racism and police brutality.

At least one person was injured by the fire bombs, police said.

Officers arrested dozens of protesters in an ensuing game of cat-and-mouse through a residential district of east Portland.

Police said people were "engaging in tumultuous and violent conduct thereby intentionally or recklessly creating a grave risk of causing public alarm."

"This is a riot. Police are giving announcements to disperse. People are throwing Molotov cocktails," Portland Police said on Twitter.

The nightly protests were sparked by the death of George Floyd while in police custody in Minneapolis in May.

Floyd's death triggered similar protests nationwide, but it is in Portland -- a city of 650,000 that is more than 70 percent white -- that activists have remained on the streets practically every night, demanding racial justice and police accountability.

President Donald Trump has cast the city as being under siege by "thugs" engaged in "domestic terrorism," though the demonstrations have been peaceful for the most part.

Tensions escalated again last weekend after a man identified as a supporter of a right-wing group was shot and killed.

Earlier Saturday, hundreds of people gathered in a park near Portland in a memorial for Aaron "Jay" Danielson, a supporter of the far-right group Patriot Prayer.

The 39-year-old was fatally shot after he joined pro-Trump supporters who descended on Portland, sparking confrontations with Black Lives Matter counter-protesters.

The suspect in the shooting, Michael Reinoehl, 48, was killed in neighbouring Washington state as police tried to arrest him.

The circumstances of Danielson's death are still under investigation but Reinoehl appeared to acknowledge shooting him in an interview with Vice News.