TORONTO — Black- clad demonstrators broke off from a peaceful protest of the G20 global economic summit, torching police cruisers and smashing windows with baseball bats and hammers.
Police with shields and clubs earlier pushed back another small group of demonstrators who tried to head toward the security fence surrounding the perimeter of the summit site.
Some demonstrators hurled bottles at police.
“This isn’t our Toronto, and my response is anger,” Mayor David Miller told CP24 television. “Every Torontonian should be outraged by this.”
Police cars headed to Toronto to reinforce security after the smaller Group of Eight summit ended in Huntsville, Ontario.
Police in riot gear and riding bikes formed a blockade, keeping protesters from approaching the security fence a few blocks south of the march route. Police closed a stretch of Toronto’s subway system along the protest route, and the largest shopping mall downtown closed after the protest took a turn for the worse. The Associated Press
