Pro-Palestinian protesters occupied a building at the University of California, Irvine on Wednesday, prompting university officials to call in multiple police agencies, cancel classes and advise people on campus to shelter in place, a university spokesperson said.
No arrests or injuries were reported when several Orange County law enforcement agencies, including the Irvine Police Department, responded to a university request for assistance, an Irvine Police Department spokesperson said.
The demonstration in Irvine, about 40 miles south of Los Angeles, is the latest in a series of campus protests across the United States over the war in Gaza, in which activists have called for a ceasefire and the protection of civilian lives while demanding that universities rid themselves of Israeli interests.
About 200 to 300 protesters surrounded a UC Irvine lecture hall at a time when classes were not in session, university spokesman Tom Vasich said. Campus police responded and called for assistance from nearby agencies, including Irvine police and Orange County sheriffs among those who arrived on campus, Vasich said.
Riot police formed a barricade and an officer warned the crowd over a loudspeaker that they had formed an unlawful assembly and risked arrest if they remained at the scene, the Orange County Register reported.
Four adjacent research buildings with possibly hundreds of people inside were locked down and those inside were ordered to shelter in place, Vasich said. Classes were canceled for the rest of the day, he said.
The lecture hall was located near a student camp, similar to those at other universities, which has led to mass arrests and clashes with police elsewhere in the country.
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