Racial tensions in US flare up, scores held in protests

The police arrested scores of people in demonstrations overnight between Saturday and Sunday in several US cities, as racial tensions simmer over the killing of black men by the police.

Protesters, led by the Black Lives Matter movement, are demanding justice for two African-American men shot dead by cops, their dying moments captured in video that went viral online.

The protests come after 25-year-old black Army veteran Micah Johnson used a high-power rifle to kill five police officers and wound seven in a sniper attack at a protest in Dallas, Texas, Thursday. Johnson said before the police killed him that he wanted to murder white cops in revenge for the black deaths. Dallas was still on edge on Saturday. Following an anonymous threat, SWAT teams swarmed the police headquarters.

However protests were unruly in Baton Rouge, where Sterling was killed, and St. Paul, where Castile died. Hundred protesters in St. Paul blocked a highway intersection for several hours late Saturday and hurled firecrackers, rocks and bottles at police.