PENTICTON, BRITISH COLUMBIA, JULY 28 -- Hundreds of youths looted downtown stores and overturned cars early today before police used tear gas to quell the riot. At least 80 people were arrested and 60 injured, authorities said.
The rampage started just after midnight during the annual Peach Festival in this resort town 180 miles east of Vancouver. Rap singer M.C. Hammer also had just finished a concert in the town.
Royal Canadian Mounted Police wouldn't say whether the festival or concert were linked to the rampage. A concert organizer said concert-goers weren't involved.
The disturbances began when about 20 youths threw rocks at a police officer who was directing traffic, witnesses said. Witness Lee Edwards of Kelowna, British Columbia, said at one point about 50 youths surrounded two police officers and began beating them.
Advertisement
Vickie Solberg, who watched the rampage from a doughnut shop where she works, said vandals broke about a dozen store windows before police chased them up the city's main street.
Share this articleShare"It was like a big swarm of people went running one way and then they ran the other way," she said.
Police fired tear gas canisters and blocked off streets as police helicopters whirled overhead, witnesses told Canadian Press.
Vandals looted several stores, tipped a giant peach-shaped cement concession stand into a lake and overturned vehicles at a car dealership, witnesses said. Authorities gave no damage estimates.
At least 80 people were arrested but weren't charged as of late today, said a Mounted Police officer who wouldn't give her name.
Some officers suffered minor injuries, said Mounted Police Inspector Trevor Thompsett, and a spokeswoman said about 60 people were treated for minor injuries.
Hammer and his rap group were in Penticton as part of a summer music festival sponsored by the provincial government.
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7uK3SoaCnn6Sku7G70q1lnKedZK6zr8eirZ5nnJ6zpr%2FTsqOeZ2FuhnJ7j3Bma3Ffrry2wMesZKuhn6l6orLTnqlmm5%2BjsKa%2B02agp2WSp7a1tdKhZJynnKq6o7XAaJydb2Sasnh%2FjJqYbJ5daYWigYyaaZxxXWmupK3Ea2dwa2mWfXA%3D