(MENAFN- Qatar News Agency) Washington, May 28 (QNA) - Supporters and opponents of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump have clashed in the city of San Diego, California.
Over 1,000 anti-Trump protesters gathered on Friday outside the San Diego Convention Center, where Trump was giving a speech to his supporters.
Protesters were carrying US and Mexican flags and holding signs criticizing Trump’s remarks about Mexican migrants.
The clashes erupted as Trump’s supporters flooded into the street after the event at the center ended. Protesters threw plastic bottles and rocks at one another and exchanged shouted epithets.
Police ordered the crowd to disperse, saying the gathering was unlawful. People, however, refused to leave the area even hours after the event was over.
A number of police officers in riot gear and with batons stood between the two sides and moved in to force protesters to leave the area around the center.
Police said they arrested 12 people after clashes broke out.
San Diego is a city on US-Mexico border and is mainly viewed as a binational city because a third of its population is Latino and around 300,000 people cross the border legally every day for work.
Trump’s rhetoric against immigrants, Muslims and women has prompted widespread outrage across the US.
He has called for the building of a towering wall along the US-Mexico border to keep illegal immigrants out and deporting the 11 million undocumented immigrants who live in the US.
Activists have criticized his plan as being cruel and impossible to implement. (QNA)