Police Begin Clearing Occupy D.C. Protest Site

"This is not an eviction," U.S. Park Police Sergeant David Schlosser told reporters. "We're not just willy-nilly tossing stuff."

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He called the action a "nuisance abatement" and said police were "focusing on camping restrictions."

Guarded by police, sanitation workers cleared away most tents and heaps of bedding, palettes, crates, tarpaulins, full-sized mattresses, books, clothes, straw and other debris that had accumulated over the four months of occupation.

Although many demonstrators were packing up tents and belongings, others vowed to sleep on the sidewalk or seek shelter at churches and elsewhere.

"The most important thing is to maintain our presence. That is the plan," said Edward Sahadi, 47, a baker from Key West, Florida, who has been at the site for more than three months.

The Occupy movement began when protesters set up camp in New York's Zuccotti Park on Sept. 17, sparking demonstrations across the United States and elsewhere in the world, and its message of economic equality has become a theme in the U.S. presidential race.

But the eviction of Occupy Wall Street protesters and public spaces in other U.S. cities in November and December has made the protests less visible and organizers now face the challenge of how to maintain momentum without the physical camps.

Local media in Austin, Texas, reported that police had cleared an Occupy encampment there, with seven arrests. A spokesman for the Austin Police Department was not immediately available to comment.

Demonstrations in the U.S. capital have survived an unusually warm winter and a permissive approach by federal authorities reluctant to provoke confrontation.

But McPherson Square, which borders Washington's K Street lobbying corridor, had drawn increasing complaints from members of Congress and city officials because of the rising costs of policing, squalor and rats. The protest site also had drawn numbers of homeless people.