Police arrested around two dozen protesters at an anti-Wall Street encampment in Washington after activists had illegally erected a wooden shelter overnight, prompting an eight-hour standoff.
Officers on foot and horseback converged on McPherson Square, near the White House and where demonstrators have been living since late September, leading several activists to climb on to the structure and refuse to come down.
After making more than a dozen arrests near the 8 meters tall, roofless hut, US Park Police deployed an armored car and motorised lift to try to remove six demonstrators who had clung on limpet-like to the shelter.
Ladders were then used to ease down the last protester who for more than 30 minutes held off five officers who had tried to attach a rope to his body to lift him off the building. But he was eventually prised off.
A crowd of around 400 people had gathered to watch the spectacle and many of them shouted "shame on you," at police as arrests were made at the site and they also chanted that "liberty and justice would prevail."
Despite moves to evict "Occupy" protesters from similar camps in New York and other cities, authorities in the US capital have generally refrained from taking action against the village of tents and tarps that has sprung up here.
But the erection of a wooden building, against park regulations, prompted police to swarm into the square around 11:30 am, prompting the day-long standoff.
A police officer at the scene on condition of anonymity told AFP that "more than 20" people were arrested over the course of the day. Witnesses put the number of arrests at 24.
A second officer told AFP the people who had climbed on to its wooden beams had been given three warnings that they were subject to arrest.
The park police were backed by District of Columbia officers who surrounded the square, the focal point of Occupy DC, and sealed off surrounding streets.
Protesters were split on the merits of building the wooden shelter frame that led to yesterday's standoff with city authorities.
Angelica Gatewood said the structure was meant to be "an emergency heating shelter for the winter," which is just beginning to bite in Washington, but another protester said it was jeopardising Occupy DC's aims.
"This building was an effort to provide winter quarters but nevertheless it may have put the rest of the camp at risk," said Jim Fussell, a 49-year-old father of two from Arlington, Virginia.
