Hundreds of people spent the night sleeping in New York's Wall Street district after failing to occupy the heart of global finance to protest greed, corruption and budget cuts.
Hundreds of demonstrators, who descended on Lower Manhattan with the aim of staying at least until the open of the New York Stock Exchange on Monday, had planned to turn the area into an "American Tahrir Square".
They were, however, thwarted when police blocked all the streets near the New York Stock Exchange and Federal Hall in Lower Manhattan.
By Sunday, only about 200 demonstrators remained, having spent the night at Trinity Place some 300 metres from Wall Street.
It was a sobering reality for organizers who had hoped to see over 20,000 people "flood" the neighbourhood for a months-long occupation.
The protest came as the United States struggles to overcome an economic crisis marked by a huge budget deficit that has triggered cuts in the public service sector while unemployment hovers stubbornly above nine per cent.
