DHAKA: The US state of Missouri is sending the National Guard to the town of Ferguson as protests escalate over the police shooting of an unarmed black teenager.

Governor Jay Nixon signed an order to ‘help restore peace and order and to protect the citizens of Ferguson’, reports the BBC.

The decision was made as police clashed with angry crowds shortly before a second night under curfew began.

Police in Ferguson, a suburb of St Louis, said they came under attack and had ‘no alternative’ but to respond.

Cpt Ron Johnson said protesters had thrown Molotov cocktails and bottles at security forces, and set up barricades before the five-hour curfew began at midnight (05:00 GMT).

‘For those who would claim that the curfew was what led to (the) violence, I will remind you this incident began three and a half hours before the curfew was to have started,’ he told journalists in Ferguson on Monday.

BDST: 1659 HRS, AUG 18, 2014