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Police move in on Wall Street protestersNEW: Bloomberg: Demonstrators "must follow the park rules""You're going to have to deal with us," a protester saysThe park's owner says the continued occupation poses a health hazard Protesters will be allowed to return but not camp out Editor's note: Are you there? Send photos to Open Story.
New York (CNN) -- Police in full riot gear moved in to New York's Zuccotti Park early Tuesday morning, evicting hundreds of protesters from the site where the Occupy call to action began two months ago before spreading globally.
Dozens of protesters who had camped out at the Lower Manhattan park since September 17 linked arms in defiance. Many chanted, "Whose park? Our park" and "You don't have to do this."
Police arrested at least 14 people, said Kanene Holder, a spokeswoman for the Occupy Wall Street movement. Authorities did not immediately provide figures.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg's office said the move is temporary.
"Occupants of Zuccotti should temporarily leave and remove tents and tarps. Protestors can return after the Park is cleared," the mayor's office said in a tweet at 1:34 a.m.
About 10 minutes later, the eviction began.
Police handed out notices from the park's owner, Brookfield Office Properties, that said the continued occupation posed a health and fire hazard.
"You are required to immediately remove all property, including tents, sleeping bags and tarps from Zuccotti Park," the note said. "That means you must remove the property now."
The Occupy Wall Street website video streamed the eviction under a banner headline that read, "NYPD is raiding Liberty Square." Liberty Square is the former name of the park.
While many protesters left without resisting, many others moved to the center of the park to an area known as the kitchen. There, they built barricades with tables to keep police away.
The air was thick with smoke, which some protesters said was from teargas that officers lobbed.
Others said officers took thousands of books from the camp's makeshift library and tossed them in Dumpsters.
"In an immense show of force, police have shown their presence," Holder said. "I've seen how agitated the police are and some pushing and shoving to remove us."
CNN could not confirm those accounts, as police kept journalists a block and a half away from the park during their raid.
However, CNN was able to obtain footage of piles of clothing, tents and tarps made by police as they cleaned out the park.
One protester told CNN he was awakened by "shouting and screaming" and wasn't sure what was going on. He said he didn't find out about the order to vacate until later.
The park remained closed as of 7 a.m., with all four sides barricaded and a number of police officers on the scene. A sign posted at the park said when the park reopens, a 10 p.m. curfew would be in place, and tents and sleeping bags will be prohibited.
Bloomberg said in a statement that Occupy demonstrators "must follow the park rules if they wished to continue to use it to protest."
Many protesters complied with the order to remove property, he said, but police and the city's Sanitation Department "assisted in removing any remaining tents and sleeping bags," the mayor said.
Protesters were asked to leave the park temporarily while it was being cleaned, and they were told they would be free to return afterward.
"Protesters -- and the general public -- are welcome there to exercise their First Amendment rights, and otherwise enjoy the park, but will not be allowed to use tents, sleeping bags or tarps and, going forward, must follow all park rules," Bloomberg said.
"The law that created Zuccotti Park required that it be open for the public to enjoy for passive recreation 24 hours a day. Ever since the occupation began, that law has not been complied with, as the park has been taken over by protesters, making it unavailable to anyone else ... the park was becoming a place where people came not to protest, but rather to break laws, and in some cases, to harm others."
While most protesters were peaceful, "an unfortunate minority" were not, Bloomberg said, prompting reports of businesses being threatened and complaints regarding noise and unsanitary conditions.
Bloomberg said he and Brookfield Properties had become concerned about health and fire safety hazards posed by the encampment. "But make no mistake -- the final decision to act was mine," he said.
"Protesters have had two months to occupy the park with tents and sleeping bags," the mayor said. "Now they will have to occupy the space with the power of their arguments."
Many of the hundreds who left quickly reassembled two blocks away, chanting, "We are back together."
By 4:30 a.m., the Lower Manhattan park was clear, with about 40 city crews in orange vests scraping up trash and pressure washing sidewalks. Tents, blankets, tarps and clothes lay in piles.
The park's owner said protesters will be allowed to return -- but cannot camp out.
"If you decide to return, you will not be permitted to bring tents, sleeping bags, tarps and similar materials with you," the note said.
Jeremy Baratta, a 32-year-old Army veteran, called the health concerns that authorities cited a pretext.
"It was fairly clean," he said of the park. "No urine or fecal matter. There weren't things strewn about."
Since the protests began in September, the encampment at the park had taken on an air of permanency, with tents covering the public plaza from one end to the other. Protesters said they were there for the long haul.
Last month, Bloomberg had ordered protesters to vacate the park so it could be cleaned, but Brookfield changed its mind after it said it was "inundated" with calls.
On Monday, police in Oakland, California, conducted a similar raid when they moved in to the Occupy encampment at Frank Ogawa Plaza near City Hall and tore down tents. Officers made 33 arrests.
There, too, the park is reopen to protesters, but city officials will enforce a ban on camping in the park with an around-the-clock police presence.
The Tuesday morning eviction of Zuccotii Park comes ahead of plans by the protesters to "shut down" Wall Street on Thursday -- to mark the two-month anniversary of their movement.
Baratta, the protester, said that the movement will continue whether or not the park serves as a base.
"You're going to have to deal with us," he said. "We're not going to show up for an hour and then leave. They're going to have to acknowledge us."
CNN's Marina Landis, Karen Smith, Julian Cummings, Poppy Harlow, Vivienne Foley oand Scott Thompson contributed to this report.
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