NEW YORK, August 18. /ITAR-TASS/. Police in the US city of Ferguson, Missouri, used smoke grenades Sunday evening to break up at least 400 participants in a protest action which had been held in the city already for more than a week over the murder of black teenager Michael Brown, 18, by a police officer.

Police have hurled smoke grenades from armored vehicles in the area of demonstration, CNN reported. Protesters coming with children happened to be in the effective range of smoke bombs, eyewitnesses said. This police action stirred up an eruption of emotions at a rally which had been peaceful before this, several participants in the protest action said.

Ferguson has been a scene of clashes between local residents and law enforcement agencies already for a week. To prevent the situation in the city from deteriorating, Missouri Governor Jay Nixon has announced a state of emergency and curfew from midnight until 5am local time. This measure did not help avert new clashes overnight to Sunday in which a local resident had got a gunshot wound and seven most active participants of disorder were detained.

Police said that the current protest action started developing according to the Saturday scenario and decided to use smoke grenades to disperse the mob.