(CNN) — After weeks on campus, pro-Palestinian protesters entered and barricaded the Student Services Building at California State University, Los Angeles, Wednesday, video from CNN affiliate KABC showed.
A group of 50 to 100 protesters barricaded the exits on the first floor and blocked off areas around the building, university spokesperson Erik Frost Hollins told the Los Angeles Times. The university asked employees on the upper floors to shelter in place, Hollins said.
A small group of staff members were staying Wedneday night “to handle the situation,” the Times reported.
Demonstrators “don’t want folks inside the building,” a protester told KABC, saying, “This is not a hostage situation.”
The demonstrations escalated due to frustration with university officials who sent a message regarding encampments, which “reiterated something … said 20 days ago,” a protester told KABC.
Video from KABC showed protesters moving furniture on the first floor of the building with signs on windows and plywood spray-painted with the messages, “The time to escalate is now!” and “CSU stop funding genocide.”
The office of Cal State, Los Angeles, President Berenecea Johnson Eanes is located in the Student Services Building, according to the university website. The president is one of the staff members still inside the building, KABC reported.
The university called the Los Angeles Police Department to assist, CNN affiliate KCAL/KCBS reported. Officers are working on a plan and are increasing their presence on campus, but no tactical information has been disclosed, police told the outlet.
The protesters’ actions at Cal State, Los Angeles, come as some American campuses continue to be convulsed by pro-Palestinian demonstrations denouncing Israel’s handling of its war against Hamas in Gaza.
Protests late this spring gripped schools across the country, but they have persisted in some places, including at UCLA – some 20 miles west of Cal State, Los Angeles – where 27 people were arrested Monday after setting up multiple pro-Palestinian encampments that police said were unlawful.
Additionally, at least six University of California Police Department personnel and other safety officers were injured in confrontations with the protesters, including one person with a head injury, Rick Braziel, UCLA’s associate vice chancellor for campus safety, said in a news release Tuesday.
Of those arrested at UCLA, 18 were students, and two were faculty, police said. Another was a former student, while the rest were not affiliated with the university.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
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