UPDATE: Police arrest 20 Occupy Albany protesters; in New York, 70 Wall Street protesters charged

PHOTOGRAPHER: The Associated Press

Police arrested 70 protesters at New York’s Zuccotti Park early Tuesday, including some who chained themselves together, while clearing the park so that sanitation crews could clean it.

Concerns about health and safety issues at Occupy Wall Street camps around the country have intensified, and protesters have been ordered to take down their shelters, adhere to curfews and relocate so that parks can be cleaned.

Albany arrests

Police continue to arrest Occupy Albany protesters in a public park next to the state Capitol.

Protesters have camped out at the city’s Academy Park since Oct. 21. Starting this past weekend, dozens of them have been arrested for crossing into adjacent state-run Lafayette Park. They are testing Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s vow to enforce the state park’s 11 p.m. curfew there.

Albany media outlets report that 20 protesters were arrested around midnight Monday on disorderly conduct and trespassing charges.

At about 1 a.m. Tuesday, New York City police handed out notices from Brookfield Office Properties, owner of Zuccotti Park, and the city saying that the park had to be cleared because it had become unsanitary and hazardous. Protesters were told they could return in several hours, but without sleeping bags, tarps or tents.

Photo galleries

To see some of the photos we’ve take at the Occupy movement, click here.

Paul Brown, a spokesman for the New York Police Department, said the park had been cleared by 4:30 a.m. and that about 70 people who’d been inside it had been arrested, including a group who chained themselves together. One person was taken to a local hospital for evaluation because of breathing problems.

Police in riot gear filled the streets, car lights flashing and sirens blaring. Protesters, some of whom shouted angrily at police, began marching to two locations in Lower Manhattan where they planned to hold rallies.