Protesters, police face off in anti-G20 march

TORONTO (Reuters) - Black-clad anarchists faced off against riot police near the fenced-off site of the summit of world leaders in Toronto on Saturday, in the largest demonstration in a week of protests against the G20 talks.

Organizers had said the demonstration against the summit of the Group of 20 industrialized and developing economies would be peaceful, and several thousand people had joined the protest by midafternoon.

A Reuters reporter witnessed a handful of demonstrators chipping pieces off concrete planters lining the path of the march before scuffles between the two sides. Police used their plastic shields to shove demonstrators back into the crowds.

Anarchist groups had vowed to accompany the peaceful march, but said they would break off and challenge police at the barrier, a steel fence that prevents access to central hotels and the convention center where the leaders were to meet.

"Shame on you, shame on you, this is what a police state looks like," protesters chanted, as more than 100 police officers shadowed the group.

A smaller group in riot gear brandished batons and shields from behind a metal fence.

Toronto's transit authority shut down a subway line running near the scene of the demonstration, and said there would be no streetcars in the downtown core while the protest lasted.

Anti-G20 groups have been demonstrating in Toronto all week before the G20 summit, which follows a smaller meeting of Group of Eight industrialized nations in the Ontario resort town of Huntsville.

Canada has budgeted more than C$1 billion ($970 million) for security for the two summits.

Police earlier this week arrested a man and a woman a few blocks from the summit site and said they had found incendiary devices.

Overnight, police conducted raids on houses of suspected protest organizers in Toronto and arrested four people on charges of conspiracy to commit mischief, in what police said was a protest-related move.

About 2,000 demonstrators faced off against police on Friday in a protest that police halted a few blocks from the U.S. Consulate and the G20 security barrier.

(Reporting by Pav Jordan, writing by Cameron French; Editing by Janet Guttsman)