The midwestern US town of Ferguson was recovering from another night of violence on Tuesday as a police crackdown on protests against the killing of an unarmed black teenager continued. In the past ten days, this mainly black suburb of St Louis, Missouri has become a global symbol of the tensions created by the United States' racial divide and heavy-handed law enforcement tactics.
Overnight, protesters shot at police and threw rocks and firebombs in a new spasm of violence that left six wounded and led to 31 arrests. Police responded with tear gas to disperse the crowd of about 200 in the town, Captain Ron Johnson of the Missouri Highway Patrol said. Johnson said two demonstrators and four officers were injured, and argued that police had showed restraint by not opening fire. On August 9, 18-year-old Michael Brown was killed in broad daylight on a residential street by Darren Wilson, a 28-year-old white police officer - triggering a wave of community protests. Although police have since fingered Brown as a robbery suspect, he was unarmed at the time of shooting and some witnesses have said he was surrendering when he was hit six times, twice in head.