Racially charged protests flared overnight on Friday into yesterday in Ferguson, Missouri, in an eruption of fresh anger over the fatal August 9 shooting of an unarmed black teenager by a police officer.

Protesters swarmed through a residential and retail district in the small town outside St Louis. Highway Patrol Captain Ron Johnson, an African-American named by Governor Jay Nixon to lead security in the town on Thursday, said police fired teargas while some protesters threw bottles.

Tensions have been high since police officer Darren Wilson shot Michael Brown, 18, last weekend.