US protesters clash with guards at Washington museum
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Protesters clashed with security staff when they tried to enter a museum in the US capital Saturday, prompting one guard to usepepper spray and leading to at least one arrest, a spokeswoman said.
The incident occurred at The Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum around 3.15 pm (1915 GMT), but it was not immediately clear if the demonstrators were affiliated with the Occupy DC protest group that sprung up earlier this week as a spin-off of the larger Occupy Wall Street movement in New York.
"Protestors tried to push through the doors into the building and when they were told they couldn't bring the banners they were carrying inside one security officer used pepper spray," said Smithsonian spokeswoman Linda St. Thomas.
"There were a couple of hundred protestors in the area at the time and Washington police were called. There was one arrest that I know of," she added, noting that the museum closed its doors two hours early because of the clash.
Occupy DC, a young group of several dozen protestors, is camping out at McPherson Square on Washington's K Street, where many political lobbyists have their offices.
On Friday its members greeted commuters with placards denouncing corporate greed. Later they mingled in small groups and swapped experiences with Occupy Wall Street participants who have come down to the nation's capital.
Protestors, angered by government bailouts of banks based on Wall Street, began to gather in New York on September 17, leading to continuous, increasingly high-profile demonstrations.
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