Violent Protests Prompt UC Berkeley To Cancel Talk By Controversial Breitbart News Editor

BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) — A University of California, Berkeley official says a talk by a polarizing Breitbart News editor at the university was canceled Wednesday as protesters outside the building where the speech was to have taken place threw smoke bombs and set a fire.

UC Berkeley spokesman Dan Mogulos says officials were advising the campus to shelter in place and to stay away from the student union building, where Milo Yiannopoulos was scheduled to speak.

A group of protesters dressed in black and some in hooded sweatshirts broke windows, threw smoke bombs and flares at a building and set a large bonfire outside the building.

Some of the protesters pulled away metal barricades as police in riot gear guarded the building.

By 8 p.m., the crowd had thinned and at least 100 protesters that remained danced to a brass band playing music and marched off campus and into a main avenue.

Hundreds of peaceful demonstrators carrying signs that read "Hate Speech Is Not Free Speech" had been protesting for hours before the event.

UC Berkeley spokesman says there are no immediate reports of arrests or serious injuries.

Yiannopoulos, 32, a right wing provocateur, is a vocal supporter of President Donald Trump and a self-proclaimed internet troll whose comments have been criticized as racist, misogynist, anti-Muslim and white supremacist.

His visit to Berkeley is sponsored by the campus Republican club.

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