Thousands of MSU students and fans charged East Lansing streets late Saturday night after MSU's loss to North Carolina in the Final Four round of the NCAA Tournament in St. Louis, Mo.

As with past post-game melees, crowds quickly gathered between apartment complexes in the Cedar Village area. A large group also packed downtown streets near several bars.

Police estimated crowds in downtown East Lansing - mostly centralized near Abbott Road and Albert Avenue - reached as high as 1,500.

In the Cedar Village area, the crowd totaled near 3,000 at points.

Forty arrests had been made as of 1:30 a.m., MSU police Sgt. Florene McGlothian-Taylor said. Twenty-eight were taken to the East Lansing jail. The rest were transported to the Lansing jail.

"It's been termed a riot by police," McGlothian-Taylor said.

As of 1 a.m., about six fires had been spotted around the city. McGlothian-Taylor said campus remained quiet.

Most crowds had disbanded by 2 a.m.

"The crowds are better than normal; it's quite a bit smaller," East Lansing police Lt. Kevin Daley said. "We're not hearing the multiple problems at all. We're hoping crowds are breaking up and learning."

Students and fans criticized police for shooting tear gas into crowds, saying groups were not violent and police action was premature. Police began releasing tear gas into crowds at about 11:15 p.m.

But police said they were being proactive, not aggressive, in their attempts to disperse large crowds and send people home.

Lee June, vice president for student affairs and services, was caught in the action near Cedar Village.

June watched the game in Breslin Center along with hundreds of others. He then walked to the Cedar Village area, where he was caught in the clouds of tear gas.

"In my observation, the students behaved responsibly. Overall, I am pleased with what I saw and how the students behaved," he said.

June declined to comment on police actions, but said he did not see any provocation from students.

Many students said they felt that they were tear gassed for no reason.

"It's ridiculous. No one was doing anything wrong at all," said Amy Janisse, a merchandising management sophomore, who helped people who were tear gassed outside her sister's home on River Street. "People were just out there standing and cheering. No one was touching the cops or the horses. They're taking it way overboard."

Police released at least a dozen tear gas canisters in the Cedar Village area before midnight. At least as many were released into a downtown crowd gathered near Albert Avenue and Bailey Street.

"If we are passive and allow the crowd to get so large so we can't control them, we lose," Daley said. "We're not being aggressive."

Eight separate teams of police, termed tactical riot teams, were planted throughout the area - six in the city and two on campus.

Daley said a large crowd does not necessarily have to be present for them to release tear gas, but police can act if they feel people are being disorderly.

"We've gotten calls from students angry about the gas - but nobody gets hurt long term, and it's the best way to move a large crowd," Daley said.

Police had blocked off several roads before the game ended, including those within Cedar Village, parts of Grand River Avenue, Albert Avenue and Bogue Street.

Eight police agencies worked the area Saturday night.

East Lansing police held a press conference at 12:40 a.m. in front of City Hall and said the extra police presence in the city was warranted. Police said the crowds were dissipating, and the night was beginning to end. Tear-gas canisters being launched could be heard in the background.

"Crowds started getting to sizes that could get out of control," Daley said at the press conference. He said there is a narrow window of time before a calm crowd can grow into an unruly crowd. When a crowd gets into the thousands, there is "not much we can do but chase it," he said.

Within about 15 minutes of MSU's loss, several hundred people gathered on either side of Cedar Street and Waters Edge Drive and began chanting "Go green, go white," to crowds across the street. Crowds acted similarly along Albert Avenue, near Buffalo Wild Wings, 360 Albert Ave.

Police and DTN-contracted security forces had been stationed on several corners in the area before the game and police vehicles circled Cedar Village parking lots throughout the game.

Mounted police were also waiting at the intersections in Cedar Village but did little to break up the crowds, and they were removed from the area within about 30 minutes.

At 11 p.m., police announced over a loudspeaker stationed atop a Cedar Village apartment complex that the area contained an "unlawful assembly" and would soon begin arresting people in crowds.

English senior Adam Arbogast - who was a student during the 1999 and 2003 riots - said he was walking home from a friend's house with his fiancee and couldn't escape the police or canisters of tear gas.

He said they vomited after being tear gassed. Several other students had similar complaints.

"I felt like the cops had already planned on doing it, so they did," he said. "I didn't think that was warranted at all."

At about 12:35 a.m., small crowds fled into McDonald's, 1024 Grand River Ave., after being tear gassed. Employees yelled at them to get out, while holding baseball bats and broken broomstick handles. Others were locked inside the store until the crowds left.

At about 1 a.m., approximately 200-300 people gathered at the corner of Albert and M.A.C. avenues, as several people began jumping on a car with others inside of it. There were no police present at the time, but about a dozen police later arrived in full riot gear with clubs and fired tear gas in front of the El Azteco, 225 Ann St.