At least 100 people were arrested in Canada as police clamped down on trucker convoy protesters who blockaded Ottawa for weeks

Three weeks after the Freedom Convoy arrived in the nation's capital and blockaded city streets in protest of COVID-19 measures, police closed in on protesters in Canada.

More than 100 people were arrested and 21 vehicles were towed as of Friday night, according to the police.

Protesters tried to remove an officer's weapons. All means of de-escalation have been used to move forward in our goal of returningOttawa to it's normal state.

They warned protesters on Friday to clear the area or be arrested.

Police said mounted officers were sent in as protesters continued their assaultive behavior with the police line, to prevent an injury.

The person who threw a bicycle at the horse was arrested for harming a police service animal.

—Ottawa Police (@OttawaPolice) February 18, 2022

Police horses passed through a crowd, followed by people on the ground and others accusing the police of trampling the crowd. The police said they were unaware of any injuries.

After the horses dispersed the crowd, we hear your concern for the people on the ground. Police said in a statement that anyone who fell got up and walked away.

Police said no one had been seriously injured or killed as a result of police actions.

The operation to remove protesters and vehicles that have leftOttawa in gridlock for weeks and disrupted the lives of the capital's residents came days after Prime Minister Trudeau declared a national emergency over the protests, giving the government power to temporarily restrict civil rights. The Canadian government has not taken a similar action in over 50 years.

The demonstrators began arriving in late January to protest the vaccine mandates. Different groups are demonstrating against a variety of public-health measures.