A black protestor who interrupted a Donald Trump rally was threatened with being “lit on fire” while trying to interrupt the Republican presidential candidate’s speech.
Video footage of the incident, captured by BuzzFeed, shows the protester, Ender Austin III, being restrained by security officers, while a man in the crowd shouts “light the motherf***er on fire”.
Multiple protestors were escorted from the rally in Las Vegas on Monday, hours before the Republican candidates are set to enter their final GOP debate of the year.
After being ejected from the rally Mr Austin told BuzzFeed News that although he was being disruptive, he was not given a verbal warning before being physically restrained and removed from the event.
“They immediately used physical force,” he said. “What concerned me is that people were yelling racial epithets and hateful things.”
“I heard the N-word a couple of times.”
Mr Austin said he attended the rally with friends to protest Mr Trump’s recent comments demanding all Muslim immigrants should be banned from the US.
A further protestor, filmed by ABC News, can be seen shouting “Black lives matter, Muslim lives matter”, while being escorted from the event.
Mr Trump was supposedly undeterred by the scuffles at the rally, allegedly mocking dissenters and praising the crowd for helping police, according to The Guardian.
The incident comes after scuffles at a Donald Trump rally last month saw a white man reportedly punch and attempt to choke a black protester in Birmingham, Alabama.
The protester, identified by local media as well-known activist Mercutio Southall Jr, was thrown to the ground during Mr Trump's speech after he began yelling "Black lives matter!"
In video footage Mr Trump can be heard saying, “Get him the hell out of here”, while an onlooker shouts “Don’t choke him! Don’t choke him!”
The racially charged altercation in Birmingham led some to note Mr Trump’s supporters at the rally were nearly all white in a city with a majority of black people.
Trump critics and rivals have said that his behaviour appears to be stoking racial tension. Former Florida governor Jeb Bush said some of Trump's anti-Islam comments are "manipulating people's angst and their fears."
Trump has previously denied he is racist after facing criticism for comments made about Mexican immigrants, telling Fox News: "I don't have a racist bone in my body."
