World | Mon Feb 1, 2016 3:37pm EST

Oregon town tense amid dueling protests over armed takeover of wildlife refuge

BURNS, OREGON | BY JIMMY URQUHART

Tension flared in the deeply divided town of Burns, Oregon, on Monday as 500 demonstrators on both sides of an armed occupation of a federal wildlife refuge squared off, brandishing signs and yelling at each other days after one of the occupiers was shot dead by state police.

Only four people remain at the refuge after several were arrested or left last week.

Residents angered by the four-week presence of the armed occupiers and their supporters started crowding the streets in front of the Harney County Courthouse in late morning, seeking to serve as a counter-protest to a noon (2000 GMT) demonstration called at the courthouse by supporters of the occupation.

Shortly before noon, the mostly residential streets around the courthouse had swelled with protesters - about 300 opposed to the occupiers and 200, some of them from out of town, in favor. Some of the demonstrators had sidearms.

Those opposed to the militia shouted, "Go home!" Supporters, some carrying signs with a photograph of LaVoy Finicum, an occupier who was shot by police last week, shouted back, "We are home."

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