CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA.—A car plowed into a crowd of people peacefully protesting a white supremacist rally in downtown Charlottesville Saturday afternoon, ratcheting up the tension in an increasingly chaotic confrontation in this usually quiet college town.It is unclear how many were injured; an Associated Press reporter saw at least one person on the ground receiving medical treatment immediately after the car careened into the line of several hundred people.Matt Korbon, a 22-year-old University of Virginia student, said counterprotesters were marching when “suddenly there was just this tire screeching sound.” A silver sedan smashed into another car, then backed up, plowing through “a sea of people.”Read more: Chanting ‘blood and soil’ and ‘white lives matter,’ white nationalists march in CharlottesvillePeople scattered, running for safety in different directions, he said.It happened about two hours after violent clashes broke out between white nationalists, who descended on the town to rally against the city’s plans to remove a statue of the Confederal Gen. Robert E. Lee, and others who arrived to protest the racism.Hundreds of people chanted, threw punches, hurled water bottles and unleashed chemical sprays. At least eight were injured and one arrested in connection to the earlier violence. It remains unclear if the driver of the car has been apprehended.Gov. Terry McAuliffe declared a state of emergency, and police dressed in riot gear ordered people out.Small bands of protesters who showed up to express their opposition to the rally were seen marching around the city peacefully by midafternoon, chanting and waving flags. Helicopters circled overhead.Right-wing blogger Jason Kessler had called for what he termed a “pro-white” rally to protest the city of Charlottesville’s decision to remove the confederate statue from a downtown park.Colleen Cook, 26, stood on a curb sho ...
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