80 arrests at N.D. pipeline protest

More than 80 people protesting the Dakota Access pipeline were arrested Saturday during a demonstration that gathered about 300 people at a construction site in North Dakota and prompted law enforcement officers to use pepper spray.

Morton County sheriff’s office spokesman Rob Keller said authorities were called at 5:20 a.m. Saturday to a pipeline construction site located about five miles from an area where protesters have been camping out for weeks near the confluence of the Missouri and Cannonball rivers. The confrontation between officers and protesters lasted five hours.

The sheriff’s office released a statement, saying officers used pepper spray when some protesters attempted to breach a line that law enforcement officers had formed between demonstrators and construction equipment.