Police confront barrier-storming protesters

New York City police confronted a crowd of protesters on Broadway on Wednesday night, using batons and pepper spray to force them back from a row of metal barricades erected to protect Wall Street.

Video from the scene shows an officer firing pepper spray into a crowd of demonstrators and journalists while another swings his baton multiple times. The breakaway group of 100 to 200 protesters had reached the barricade with the intent of breaking through to Wall Street.

Earlier in the day, the growing Occupy Wall Street movement, whose range of grievances focuses on wealth inequality and corruption, staged a march of around 5,000 people in and around Zuccotti Park, where the protesters have made their camp.

Al Jazeera's Cath Turner reports from New York.