Missouri Governor Jay Nixon made his assertion on CNN Sunday, after a long night during which riot police bearing heavy weapons and backed by armored cars hurled smoke canisters before slowly moving in to disperse protesters. Authorities reported seven arrests and at least one person shot, although they cannot yet say by whom.

The governor imposed the midnight-5 a.m. curfew Saturday. Asked Sunday on the CNN program "State of the Union" how long his overnight lock-in would continue, Nixon said he would make that decision "judged by the community."

The intensified unrest follows days of protests triggered by the shooting of the 18-year-old Michael Brown by a white police officer on August 9. Witnesses say the teenager had his hands in the air when he was shot a number of times.

Nixon had declared his state of emergency on Saturday "to protect the people and property of Ferguson" after looters raided a few stores and clashed with police overnight Friday. Law enforcement had used tear gas and rubber bullets to deter the small group of looters, some of whom threw Molotov cocktails and bricks at police.

'Right to assemble'

Police moved armored vehicles down the street in Ferguson just after the start of the curfew at the crack of midnight on Sunday. Then, police say they received a report that people had broken into a barbecue restaurant and climbed to the roof, creating what officers said they considered a potential danger to them in their efforts to disperse the protesters. Police had responded to that report, Patrol Captain Ron Johnson said on Sunday, and not the fact that protesters remained on the street after curfew.

Hundreds of protesters had left peacefully before the curfew took effect. However, the some of the roughly 200 remaining protesters chanted, "No justice! No curfew!" and refused to leave the area. As officers put on gas masks, the crowd began to chant, "We have the right to assemble peacefully," and, just a moment later, police answered by firing canisters into the crowd of protesters.

Highway Patrol spokesman Lieutenant John Hotz initially said that police had only used smoke against the protesters, but he later told The Associated Press news agency that they had also fired tear gas canisters.

mkg/kms (Reuters, dpa, AFP, AP)