Nighttime curfew takes effect in LA

Trump to ‘liberate’ city amid protests

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A nighttime curfew was in force in Los Angeles on Tuesday as local officials sought to get a handle on protests that Donald Trump claimed were an invasion by a “foreign enemy.”

Looting and vandalism has scarred the heart of America's second biggest city as largely peaceful protests over immigration arrests turned ugly after dark.

“I have declared a local emergency and issued a curfew for downtown Los Angeles to stop the vandalism, to stop the looting,” Mayor Karen Bass told reporters.

About 2.5 square kilometres of the city’s more-than-1,300 square kilometres area will be off-limits until 6am on Wednesday local time, for everyone apart from residents, journalists and emergency services, she added.

One protester told AFP the arrest of migrants in a city with large foreign-born and Latino populations was the root of the unrest.

“I think that obviously they’re doing it for safety,” she said of the curfew. “But I don’t think that part of the problem is the peaceful protests. It's whatever else is happening on the other side that is inciting violence.”