One protester got onto the balcony of Brighton's town hall

An estimated 2,000 campaigners surrounded Brighton's town hall - and some of them forced their way into the building.

One protester got onto the town hall's balcony.

It was reported that police used CS gas to restrain other protesters outside the local authority building.

Police said the protest, which centred in the Churchill Square area of the city, had caused �10,000 damage.

Numbers of protesters swelled from about 300 to 2,000 people

The arrests came at the end of a day of otherwise peaceful demonstrations in the city.

Numbers of protesters swelled from about 300 during Thursday afternoon to an estimated 2,000 people, bringing parts of the city to a halt.

It is thought that several small protests held around the city joined up at about 1600 GMT and then people continued to add their support.

Roads in the city centre became impassable because of the volume of people.

'Strong line on violence'

A Sussex Police spokesman said a man had been arrested for vandalising and detaching a flag from the American Express company.

He was later released without charge.

Another person was arrested for daubing anti-war graffiti on the clock tower in Churchill Square and is still in police custody.

Superintendent Peter Cole said: "It is clear feelings are running high and it is quite right that we allow and facilitate peaceful protest where large numbers of people wish to express their disapproval of current events.

"I must stress we will facilitate the protest as far as is possible and reasonable, but will act robustly and take a strong line on violence towards people and damage to property."