Black leaders call for calm in Ferguson

Activists are asking protesters to clear the streets of the Missouri suburb where teenager Michael Brown was shot dead by police.

Leaders of the Nation of Islam and other black activist groups working to calm tensions in Ferguson urged demonstrators to leave at sunset amid the National Guard’s arrival.

Organisers from the New Black Panther Party, Black Lawyers for Justice and other groups joined St Louis-area community activists to again call for restraint on the part of protesters angry over the police shooting death of 18-year-old Mr Brown.

They also condemned Missouri Governor Jay Nixon’s decision to summon the National Guard, which they fear could escalate the violence.

The call to clear the streets came as police accelerated their own crowd control efforts, including the blocking of access to the burned-out QuikTrip convenience store that has become the hub of demonstrations.