Police arrested more than 1,000 people in San Francisco last night as tens of thousands protested across America against the US war in Iraq.
It was the most taken into custody on a single day in the city in decades.
San Francisco protesters started early and continued into the night with actions aimed at choking off traffic across the city.
Police in riot gear made between 1,300 and 1,400 arrests, a spokeswoman for the San Francisco Sheriff's Department said. "I've been around for 30 years, and there have never been more people arrested at a protest in one day," acting police Chief Alex Fagan told journalists.
Students gathered at campuses, where hundreds walked out of classes at noon, and at least 1,500 people gathered at a rally.
Students at the University of California's Berkeley campus, a hotbed of dissent against the Vietnam War in the 1960s and early 1970s, occupied the main administration building for several hours before 120 were arrested,
Protests took place in other cities across the United States as well as in European capitals.
Yesterday, during morning rush hour in Washington DC, more than 100 demonstrators temporarily shut down the Key Bridge, a major route from Virginia into Washington's Georgetown neighboUrhood, and three were arrested.
About 100 protesters later gathered near the White House, and about 350 demonstrators blocked evening rush hour traffic on a main Washington thoroughfare.
In New York, "September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows" condemned what they called an illegal and immoral US war. Anti-war demonstrators overflowed police barriers during rush hour in Times Square, shutting New York's Broadway for two blocks below 42nd Street. Police said they arrested 21 people.
Police in Pittsburgh fought with some protesters and arrested about 50 people, some as young as age 14. Anti-war marchers also clogged several major streets and a key highway in Chicago.