Protesters defy curfew in riot-shaken US town

FERGUSON, Aug 17 (AP): Police used smoke bombs and tear gas to disperse demonstrators who defied a curfew in Ferguson, Missouri early Sunday, where a fatal police shooting of an unarmed black teen triggered a wave of rioting.

Missouri Governor Jay Nixon declared a state of emergency and a curfew starting at midnight Saturday (0500 GMT Sunday) until 5:00 am for the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson, where 18-year-old Michael Brown was shot dead by a white police officer on August 9.

Ferguson was mostly peaceful when the curfew began on Sunday, but a crowd of protesters gathered in the area where Brown was shot and refused to disperse.

Riot police, backed up by reinforcements in armored vehicles, hurled smoke and tear gas canisters and slowly moved in to break up the crowd, which local media said numbered around 200.

Seven people were arrested for failing to dispurse, said Missouri Highway Patrol Captain Ron Johnson, the African-American officer that governor Nixon put in charge of restoring peace in Ferguson.

Johnson said that police moved when they received reports that someone apparently unrelated to the protests had been shot, and that armed individuals had broken into a restaurant.

"We have a shooting victim in critical condition that may lose her life," said Johnson, speaking to reporters around 3:50 am (0750 GMT).