Police fired tear gas canisters at around 200 anti-globalization demonstrators who had gathered to protest a G7 meeting in Halifax, Canada after they broke through two sets of metal barriers, police said.
Around four dozen riot-gear clad police holding up shields protected an intersection meters away from the meeting site of the Group of Seven finance ministers as protesters continued their rowdy, but essentially non-violent demonstration.
Royal Canadian Mounted Police spokesman Wayne Noonan confirmed police fired tear gas to disperse the crowds gathered outside the barricades surrounding the World Trade and Convention Center.
"It certaintly appears they (the protesters) are a bit more aggressive than yesterday," Halifax police Sergeant Don Spicer said.
After the firing of tear gas with a mixture of pepper spray according to an AFPphotographer, the crowd thinned to only some 100 people, but they continued to chant, dance, bang their drums and chalk up messages in front of the four-line deep arsenal of riot police.
Ministers were eating lunch at a hotel a block and a half away within the secured zone when the tear gas was deployed, but have since departed.
AFP