The chancellor of the University of California at Davis apologised to a crowd of more than 1,000 demonstrators for the use of pepper spray by campus police on protesters last week.

"You may not believe anything I say today. It's my responsibility to earn your trust," chancellor Linda Katehi told the crowd on the campus, located outside the state capital Sacramento, drawing scattered boos and jeers.

Earlier on Monday Ms Katehi put the campus police chief on administrative leave while the university investigated Friday's incident.

Video footage showed a policeman calmly walking in front of a line of students who were sitting on the ground, before pepper-spraying them in the face.

More officers then move in to to drag the students away.

The incident, which also led to suspensions of two officers, was circulated widely on the internet, thrusting the campus to the forefront of anti-Wall Street Occupy protests nationwide.

Several student leaders and faculty members addressing the rally called for Ms Katehi to resign, saying her mishandling of the school's response to campus protests led to excessive use of force by campus police.

Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Watch Duration: 50 seconds 50 s UC Davis sit-down protesters pepper-sprayed ( RTV )

Ms Katehi, made to wait in line behind a parade of speakers openly criticising her, took to the stage herself about an hour into the rally, telling the crowd: "I'm here to apologise. I really feel horrible for what happened on Friday."

When she added, "I don't want to be the chancellor of the university we had on Friday," she was answered by cries of "Resign!"

She left the stage after about a minute, looking shaken, and was hustled by security personnel to a waiting car, followed by a throng of media and a cluster of students yelling, "Don't come back!"

The demonstrations at the university had focused on issues such as economic inequality, education cuts and tuition hikes.

Monday's rally was spurred by last week's pepper-spray incident as well as an earlier confrontation at the University of California at Berkeley in which police jabbed students with night sticks.

Ms Katehi asked the Yolo County District Attorney's office to investigate the use of force by campus police and said she would create a task force to conduct a campus review and report recommendations in 30 days.

In Oakland, a hot spot of anti-Wall Street activism in recent weeks, police in the largely working-class city on the east bank of San Francisco Bay swept away the last of the town's protest camps early on Monday

Reuters

