The National Air and Space Museum was shut down on Saturday afternoon after protesters tried to enter the building and clashed with guards, said a museum spokeswoman. One person was arrested during the disturbance at the Smithsonian museum involving between 150 and 200 protesters and six guards, the spokeswoman said."There was a lot of shoving going on," she added, saying one of the guards was surrounded and used pepper spray before the demonstrators were moved outside.
The altercation broke out in a vestibule between two glass doors at the museum entrance when guards told the protesters they could not enter with signs.
Protest organizers said the attempt to enter the museum on the National Mall was part of the Occupy D.C. antiwar demonstrations that began on Thursday on the 10th anniversary of the start of the Afghanistan war.
"Along with the Occupy Wall Street movement, it represents an upswell of people taking to the street around the country to demand social and economic justice as well as an end to the immoral wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is outrageous that the security guard of a major museum in America pepper sprayed Americans as they entered the museum. The drones housed in this museum and the pepper spraying of Americans at the door are clear evidence of repression in America," organizers said in an e-mail.
The museum was shut down at 3:15 p.m. The spokeswoman said it would reopen on Sunday.