Students occupied a building at Columbia University overnight as the standoff between pro-Palestine protesters and the varsity authorities escalated. Demonstrators moved to occupy Hamilton Hall at the Manhattan school early on Tuesday 30 April after the management said it had begun suspending students who had refused to meet a deadline to disperse on Monday. Protesters barricaded the entrances and unfurled a Palestinian flag out of a window. Hamilton Hall was one of several buildings that was previously occupied during a 1968 civil rights and anti-Vietnam War protest on the campus.