CLEVELAND — The city of Cleveland has again extended its curfew after downtown protests Saturday.
The curfew will now be in effect through Tuesday at 8 p.m., officials reported Sunday. The curfew was set to expire Monday at 8 a.m. The affected area includes downtown and has been expanded to include the Market District of Ohio City. Click here for more on the restricted areas.
Office workers will not be permitted into the restricted areas unless officially designated or excluded in the Mayor's Proclamation of Civil Emergency (Civil Unrest).
Downtown residents within the curfew zone needing to travel in and out of the restricted area will be permitted with proper identification showing their residences. Pedestrian traffic within the curfew zone is permitted for limited instances including pet relief and essential travel such as medical appointment and to obtain food. However all residents are asked to remain within their homes as much as possible for the duration of the curfew.
Also, there will be no community volunteer clean up efforts during the curfew. All future clean up opportunities will be coordinated through the Downtown Cleveland Alliance.
The city warns that anyone downtown during the restricted hours is ordered to exit immediately. Those in violation of the order are subject to arrest.
RELATED: City of Cleveland announces 66 arrests, 20 people taken to hospital during Saturday protests
"The curfew applies to both vehicles and foot traffic," Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson said while encouraging everybody to stay at home.
This follows Saturday night's curfew, which was established from 8 p.m. until 8 a.m. Sunday "due to violence and unrest."
Mayor Jackson’s office announced the original curfew around 7:45 p.m. Saturday, just 15 minutes before its scheduled start time. It was made in response to downtown protests sparked by the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
"Although demonstrations began peacefully today, they escalated into criminal activity with buildings vandalized, cars set on fire and looting of downtown businesses," Mayor Jackson's office said in a press release when launching the first of two curfews on Saturday. "This is not an acceptable form of protesting. This is violent criminal activity."
Mayor Jackson and Cleveland Police Chief Calvin Williams addressed the protests in a Facebook live overnight:
Chief Williams vowed that law enforcement officials will do everything possible to keep people in the city safe.
"We know that a lot of things that happened today were people that did not reside in the city of Cleveland or in this area," Chief Williams said. "There is tons of video footage of a lot of things that happened. We have investigators as we speak that are going through that footage to identify folks so that we can bring them to justice. I want people in the city of Cleveland to know that we're going to do everything possible to keep this city safe going forward."
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The Cleveland Police Department tweeted around 7:36 p.m. that multiple downtown businesses had been vandalized and looted.