Tent city...

In what had become a sea of tents in the middle of the park, the protesters had set up a kitchen, a medical tent, a social media headquarters and a library. Protesters have said several hundred people had been regularly sleeping in the park.

Police dismantled tents and threw them and the other belongings of protesters in skips, said US reporter Josh Harkinson, who managed to enter the area around the park that had been closed off by police.

He says he saw police use a giant orange bulldozer to clear the scene.

He was very close to the food tent inside the park when police moved in to arrest protesters there.

Mr Harkinson says he was then hauled away by police and saw protesters being pepper sprayed and cuffed on his way out.

"I just got shoved out of the park by a police officer. I'm now going to explain what I saw," he said on Twitter. "The riot police moved in with zip cuffs and tear-gassed [later corrected to pepper sprayed] the occupiers in the food tent. Then they wrestled them to the ground and cuffed them. Everyone I witnessed being arrested was resisting peacefully."

Police ended up arresting some 70 protesters, including a group who chained themselves together.

Protesters say they are planning to shut down Wall Street on Thursday by holding a street carnival to mark the two-month anniversary of their movement which began on 17 September.

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