Police said early Tuesday that they came under heavy gunfire and arrested 31 people during another night of racially charged protests in Ferguson, Missouri, sparked by the fatal police shooting of an unarmed black teenager. Demonstrations, which have been mostly peaceful but with spasms of violence by smaller groups, have flared since 18-year-old Michael Brown was shot dead by a white police officer while walking down a residential street on August 9. State Highway Patrol Captain Ron Johnson told reporters that "our officers came under heavy gunfire" in one area. "Not a single bullet was fired by officers despite coming under heavy attack," Johnson said. Riot police had confiscated two guns from protesters and what looked like a petrol bomb. Four officers had been injured. An overnight curfew has been imposed and the National Guard has been deployed in the Saint Louis suburb to stop looting and burning which have punctuated the protests.
