Protests as black student left bleeding after arrest in US

Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe called for an investigation into the arrest of a black college student that left him bleeding from the head and sparked campus protests.

Photographs on social media showed 20-year-old Martese Johnson, the vice chairman of the University of Virginia’s honour committee, with a bloodied face after an arrest by state Alcoholic Beverage Control agents.

“Governor McAuliffe is concerned by the reports of this incident and has asked the secretary of public safety to initiate an independent Virginia State Police investigation into the use of force,” the Democratic governor’s office said.

Johnson’s arrest, apparently after he was denied entry to a pub, is the latest incident in which police have injured or killed unarmed African-American men in the US.

Video and images on social media showed a massive crowd gathered on the university’s campus and many marching through nearby streets, shouting phrases such as “Black lives matter”, which have been used to protest against police violence elsewhere in the country.

The phrase gained popularity after a white police officer fatally shot an unarmed black teen in the St Louis suburb of Ferguson, Missouri last summer, touching off months of protests.

Last week, an African-American man was accused of shooting and wounding two policemen there as a protest wound down.