Nineteen people are facing charges including assaulting a police officer and resisting arrest following a demonstration at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver late Friday.

A large crowd of UBC students had gathered outside the Student Union Building to demonstrate against the redevelopment of a grassy knoll at the location. A bonfire was lit as the protest neared its end.

Vancouver police and RCMP officers arrested several students when they staged an impromptu rally at UBC.
(CBC)

Police said they were called by campus security and arrested 19 people.

RCMP Const. Annie Linteau said the group swarmed a police car and became combative when officials tried to put out the fire.

Protest organizer Bahram Norouzi told CBC News that a student stood in front of the hose to block the water and was then taken away.

Some students were dragged away by police officers at the UBC demonstration Friday night.
(CBC)

Other students became angry and thought it was an unfair arrest, he said, so they proceeded to march around the police cruiser in which the student had been detained.

More officers, including the RCMP's UBC detachment and Vancouver police, arrived and more students were arrested, Norouzi said.

Some students were dragged on the ground after being handcuffed.

Norouzi said the students were peaceful and were only "singing and dancing around the [police] car."

The police "made this situation so intense for us and they brought the violence themselves," he said.

Students have been fighting for the last six months to keep the grassy knoll outside the Student Union Building, Norouzi added.

With files from the Canadian Press