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Police Evict Occupy Boston Protesters

Police remove an Occupy Boston protester from Dewey Square. (Photograph: Essdras M Suarez/AP)

Police Evict Occupy Boston Protesters

Arrests for trespassing and disorderly conduct after deadline to leave Dewey Square expires

Police have evicted Occupy protesters from Boston's Dewey Square, tearing down tents and arresting about 40 people.

The raid brought to an end a 10-week demonstration spawned by the Wall Street occupation in New York.

Police moved in at about 5am and the operation lasted less than an hour. A police spokeswoman said the protesters were "very accommodating".

Two dozen demonstrators linked arms and sat down in protest before the arrests began. The arrests were for trespassing, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.

The city had set a deadline for midnight on Thursday for the protesters to abandon the site. Many protestors left ahead of the deadline but others stayed.

The mayor, Thomas Menino, said previously that the city had no plans to forcibly remove the protesters, but he appeared to become increasingly impatient with the camp in recent days, saying it had become a health and safety hazard. On Wednesday a judge ruled that the protesters had no right to stay in Dewey Square.

Protesters estimate that 100 to 150 activists lived in the Boston encampment. Demonstrators have been forcibly removed from similar encampments in New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and San Francisco.

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