Columbia protest police raid ‘felt like a war zone’, says The Independent’s Richard Hall

Police raids on protests at Columbia University "felt like a war zone" according to The Independent‘s Senior US Correspondent Richard Hall.

Speaking to the BBC today (1 May), Hall recalled how you could see in students' faces that "they felt as though they were living in a different country".

In what Hall described as a "heavy-handed approach", the NYPD swarmed the area and used machinery to enter Hamilton Hall on Tuesday (30 April), where pro-Gaza student protesters were occupying.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams said around 300 people had been arrested and “outside agitators” forced Columbia to call police on protesters.