Shelter-in-place alert issued at Columbia University as police raid campus

Columbia University issued a shelter-in-place order on Tuesday evening as the New York Police Department descended on the campus in riot gear to dispel protesters.

More than 1,000 protesters have been arrested over the last two weeks on university campuses in Texas, Utah, Virginia, North Carolina, New Mexico, Connecticut, Louisiana, California and New Jersey.

Some demonstrators were arrested in violent clashes with police in riot gear.

The White House condemned the standoffs at Columbia on Tuesday and California State Polytechnic University Humboldt earlier in the week.

Other universities have sought to negotiate agreements with the demonstraters in the hopes of having peaceful commencement ceremonies.

On Tuesday afternoon, New York City mayor Eric Adams urged the Columbia protesters to “walk away” and advised them to “continue your advocacy through other means”.

He added: “This must end now.”

Protesters at Columbia and California State Polytechnic University Humboldt had occupied two buildings until officers with batons intervened overnight.

Police arrested 25 people, and officials estimate the damage to the northern California campus to be upwards of one million dollars.

The nationwide campus protests began at Columbia in response to Israel’s offensive in Gaza after Hamas attacked southern Israel on October 7.

Militants killed about 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and took roughly 250 hostages.

In return, Israel has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, according to the local health ministry.