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PNP van rams protesters in front of US Embassy in Manila

An anti-United States rally outside the US Embassy in Manila on Wednesday turned violent when a police van plowed through the crowd.

As of this posting, twenty-three protesters were arrested and ten people were taken to the hospital.

The crowd gathered to support a call by President Rodrigo Duterte for a foreign policy not dependent on the US—a long-time ally of the country since its liberation from Spanish rule.

Video footage released by local media showed a police van reversing at high speed into the crowd before stopping and then driving forward, knocking some people aside and catching others under the wheels.

Moments earlier, tear-gas had been fired into the crowd, protesters said on social media.

A US official told local media that the embassy was aware of the protest and referred queries to the Philippine police.

Meanwhile, the Philippine National Police has instructed the National Capital Region Police Office to conduct an investigation that will determine the liabilities of all parties involved in the violent dispersal of protesters.

“The PNP is now piecing together all facts and circumstances between members of the Manila Police district and a group of militant activists in Ermita, Manila this morning,” the PNP said in a statement.

Photo credit: AP

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