Baltimore remained under a state of emergency Tuesday morning, after the mayor called in the U.S. National Guard to quell riots that broke out just a few blocks from a racially charged funeral and spread through the city in the most violent U.S. demonstrations since looting in Ferguson, Mo., last year.
The city will be under a 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. ET curfew for a week starting tonight.
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Firefighters continued to battle building fires set by rioters, as an acrid smoke hung over streets where fire crews raced to contain damage from violence that broke out just blocks from the funeral of Freddie Gray and spread through much of West Baltimore.
Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake called Monday night one of her city's "darkest days," as protesters marched the streets and some she called "a small group of criminals" looted stores and set fire to buildings and cars.
"We cannot allow our city to devolve into chaos because of a small group of criminals that are moving throughout our city."
As night fell in Baltimore, fires from damage to property and vehicles inflicted earlier in the day continued to burn. Here pours fuel onto a smouldering car. (Jim Bourg/Reuters)
After more than an hour of mayhem, hundreds of police moved into glass-strewn streets where the worst of the violence had taken place and used pepper spray on rioters who had sacked cheque-cashing and liquor stores.
Rioters damaged vehicles, ransacked stores and set fires after violent clashes between young demonstrators and police erupted following the funeral of Freddie Gray, who died from a spinal injury suffered while in police custody. Police said 15 officers were injured, six seriously, on Monday.
The racial elements of the conflict drew comment from black leaders in the U.S.
"This problem won't be solved with Molotov cocktails," Cornell William Brooks, president of the NAACP, told CBS This Morning. "… We've got to engage in constructive action."
Police and news helicopters buzzed overhead Monday, and older community leaders tried to calm down mostly young rioters and prevent clashes with the police. Rioters cut a fire department hose while firefighters fought a fire at a CVS pharmacy looted earlier, the Baltimore police said.
Firefighters battle a blaze at a newly constructed seniors centre in Baltimore. Rioters set fire to buildings and vehicles during Monday's chaos. (Matt Rourke/Associated Press)
An Orioles baseball game was cancelled, and schools, businesses and train stations were shut down in the city of 662,000 people, about 64 kilometres from Washington.
Gray's death on April 19 reignited a public outcry over police treatment of African Americans that flared last year after the killings of unarmed black men in Ferguson, New York City and elsewhere.
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