PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, DONALD TRUMP HAS PROMISED TO SEND THE ARMY TO END PROTEST IF STATES REFUSE TO DO SO

President Donald Trump has promised to send in the military to silence growing civil unrest in the US over the death of a black man in police custody.

He said if cities and states failed to control the protests and defend their residents he would deploy the army and quickly solve the problem for them.

Protests over the death of George Floyd have escalated over the past week. Four police meanwhile have been shot and injured in Missouri with two people reported killed amid unrest in Chicago.

The circumstances of both incidents are unclear.

Meanwhile major cities imposed overnight curfews on Monday night. New York City is under lockdown until 09:00 GMT on Tuesday and Washington DC has extended its curfew for another two nights.

The protests began after a video showed Mr Floyd being arrested in Minneapolis on 25 May and a white police officer continuing to kneel on his neck even after he pleaded that he could not breathe.

The officer, Derek Chauvin, has been charged with third degree murder and will appear in court next week. Three other police officers have been fired.

The Floyd case has reignited deep-seated anger over police killings of black Americans and racism. It follows the high-profile cases of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Eric Garner in New York and others that have driven the Black Lives Matter movement.