NYC police raid Columbia University building occupied by Gaza protesters

Hundreds of police officers have raided Columbia University in New York City to disperse pro-Palestinian protesters who earlier took over a building there.

Dramatic footage showed police climbing a ladder to enter Hamilton Hall and remove students. Arrests were reported.

The university had earlier told the students to leave or face expulsion.

The demonstrators want the university to divest from Israel over its continuing deadly military operation in the Gaza Strip.

The New York Police Department (NYPD) were authorized to go in by university authorities, after student demonstrators had defied a deadline to disperse.

Columbia said that after the hall was “occupied, vandalized and blocked, we were left with no choice”.

A number of protesters were reported arrested during Tuesday’s police raid.

The BBC’s Nomia Iqbal in Columbia University reports that several NYPD buses have been seen leaving the scene, most probably filled with protesters.

Huge cheers of support by anti-war crowds were heard as the arrested students were marched off with their hands in zip ties, our correspondent adds. People chanted “Let them go!”

CBS News, the BBC’s media partner in the US, said there were about 50 arrests.

The NYPD later said the building was cleared and no injuries were reported.

The protesters have been occupying a tent camp at the Ivy League school in upper Manhattan for nearly two weeks.

US universities have been gripped by protests as students demand a boycott of companies and individuals with ties to Israel during the war in Gaza.

On campuses in Texas, California, Georgia, North Carolina, Utah, Virginia, New Mexico, California, New Jersey, Connecticut and Louisiana, police have arrested more than 1,000 protesters.

But other universities have taken a different approach and let the protests continue unimpeded.

President Joe Biden has said demonstrations should be peaceful, but “forcibly taking over buildings is not peaceful – it is wrong”.