Police in Los Angeles arrested more than 200 protesters early Wednesday, in the latest crackdown on Occupy Wall Street camps across the country.

Police began arresting the protesters just after midnight when they refused to leave an area surrounding the Los Angeles City Hall where they had camped for the past eight weeks.

City officials moved to clear what they called an “unlawful assembly” after raising concerns about crime, sanitation and property damage.

The raid came just after police emptied a similar makeshift camp of protesters in Philadelphia.

After being forced to vacate the camp, protesters began an hours-long march through Philadelphia. Several were arrested.

Protesters in both cities had been given a deadline of last Sunday to vacate the camps.

The loosely-associated “Occupy” movement began in September in New York's Zuccotti Park, where a small group of people began protesting what they saw as economic inequality and corporate greed.