A reporter said police officers swinging truncheons mounted the charge after being pelted with snowballs.

Peric suddenly found his advance barred by a solid line of ten-foot, massively muscled, filth-caked monstrosities, swinging huge rude truncheons through the air in appar- ently random strokes, red eyes blazing mindlessly and drool flecking their chins as they came at him at top speed on legs as thick as marble columns.

This morning riot police, some on horses, swung truncheons at protesters to clear a path for the delegates' buses.

The vendors fought back with pavement chunks; the police swung truncheons; the smuggling mafia made death threats, but he made a dent.

Spanish police fired rubber bullets and swung truncheons to disperse anti-crisis protesters in a Barcelona square after cleaning crews cleared their tent camp.

Hospital officials said the most serious injuries occurred at dawn, when 500 officers stormed the university, swinging truncheons.

As it was when he careered down crowded streets at twilight, the street gangs filled his wake as arranged and the officers would only plunge a little way into the rookeries, swinging truncheons.

The officers responded by charging the crowd swinging truncheons and firing several plastic bullets, while British Army soldiers installed a much larger barricade that was lined with barbed wire and supported by enormous blocks of concrete.

Within the disorderly mass were brutal skirmishes, as militia agents swung spiked truncheons and whips coated with man o' war stings.