Troops in Baltimore to quell unrest

National Guardsmen have fanned out across the city, police with riot shields blocked streets, and firefighters doused smouldering blazes after looting and arson erupted in Baltimore following the funeral of a black man who died in police custody.

It was the first time the National Guard was called in to quell unrest in Baltimore since 1968, when some of the same neighbourhoods were convulsed by violence after the assassination of the Rev Martin Luther King Jr.