Seattle police declared a riot on Saturday following large demonstrations in the city's Capitol Hill neighbourhood and deployed flash bangs and pepper spray to try to clear an area near where weeks earlier people had set up an "occupied protest zone" that stretched for several blocks.

Via Twitter, police said they had made 45 arrests for assault on officers, obstruction and failure to disperse. They also said they were "investigating a possible explosive damage" to the walls of the city's East Precinct police station.