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Sunday, August 13, 2017, 11:05
At least 1 dead as US white nationalists ignite Virginia clashes
By Reuters
Sunday, August 13, 2017, 11:05 By Reuters

White nationalist demonstrators use shields as they clash with counter demonstrators at the entrance to Lee Park in Charlottesville, Virginia, Aug 12, 2017. Hundreds of people chanted, threw punches, hurled water bottles and unleashed chemical sprays on each other Saturday after violence erupted at a white nationalist rally in Virginia. (STEVE HELBER / AP)

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Virginia – At least one person died and 30 were injured in a day of clashes between white nationalists and counter-protesters in Virginia on Saturday, with the state's governor blaming the neo-Nazis for sparking the violence and demanding that they go home.

Two people also died when a Virginia State Police helicopter crashed near the violence in Charlottesville, federal officials said.

It was not clear if the crash was related to the outbreak of clashes in the Southern college town, where protesters fought hundreds of white supremacists trying to halt the planned removal of a Confederate statue from a park.

I have a message to all the white supremacists and the Nazis who came into Charlottesville today. Our message is plain and simple: go home. 

Terry McAuliffe, Virginia Governor

Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe, a Democrat, declared an emergency and halted a white nationalist rally, while President Donald Trump condemned the violence.

"I have a message to all the white supremacists and the Nazis who came into Charlottesville today. Our message is plain and simple: go home," Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe told a news conference.

"You are not wanted in this great commonwealth. Shame on you," he said.

The clashes highlight how the white supremacist movement has resurfaced under the "alt-right" banner after years in the shadows of mainstream American politics.

Trump said "many sides" were involved in the Charlottesville incidents, drawing fire for not specifically denouncing the far right.

 “We’re closely following the terrible events unfolding in Charlottesville, Virginia," Trump told reporters at his New Jersey golf course.

"We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides."

A reporter shouted a question to Trump about whether he had spoken out strongly enough against white nationalists but the president made no comment.

A 32-year-old woman died when a car slammed into a crowd in Charlottesville, home to the University of Virginia, after clashes, police said. Five people suffered critical injuries and four had serious injuries from the car strike, the University of Virginia Health System said.

Video on social media and Reuters photographs showed a car slamming into a large group of what appeared to be counter-protesters, sending some flying into the air.

State Police in riot gear guard Lee Park after a white nationalist demonstration was declared illegal and the park was cleared in Charlottesville, Virginia, Aug 12, 2017. (STEVE HELBER / AP)

The driver of the car, an unidentified man, has been taken into custody and the incident is being treated as a homicide, Charlottesville Police Chief Al Thomas told a news conference.

'DOMESTIC TERRORISM?'

Prominent Democrats, civil rights activists and some Republicans said it was inexcusable of the president not to denounce white supremacy.

"Mr. President - we must call evil by its name," Republican US Senator Cory Gardner, wrote on Twitter.

Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic leader in the US House of Representatives, said in a tweet directed at the president: "Repeat after me, @realDonaldTrump: white supremacy is an affront to American values."

The car incident occurred after clashes nearby that injured 15 people and were marked by fist fights, rocks being hurled and the use of pepper spray.

The fighting broke out in the city's downtown when hundreds of people, some wearing white nationalist symbols and carrying Confederate battle flags, were confronted by a nearly equal number of counter-protesters.

In the afternoon, a silver sedan driving at high speed plowed into the crowd before reversing along the same street.

In this photo taken Aug11, 2017, multiple white nationalist groups march with torches through the UVA campus in Charlottesville, Virginia. (MYKAL MCELDOWNEY/THE INDIANAPOLIS STAR VIA AP)

The incident took place about two blocks from the park that houses the statue of Robert E. Lee, who headed the Confederate army in the American Civil War.

The violence began on Friday night, when hundreds of white marchers with blazing torches appeared at the campus of the University of Virginia in a display that critics said was reminiscent of a Ku Klux Klan rally.

David Duke, a former leader of the white supremacist Ku Klux Klan, was in Charlottesville for the rally, according to his Twitter account.

The rally was part of a long debate in the US South over the Confederate battle flag and other symbols of the rebel side in the Civil War, which was fought over the issue of slavery.

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