US protest photo hailed as 'legendary'

Protests have continued in the United States, after violent incidents involving African American people and the police last week.

On Sunday, dozens of protesters were arrested in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where a black man was killed by police last Tuesday.

In an atmosphere of heightened racial tension, and amid growing debate over the seeming militarisation of American police, one photo has stood out.

It was taken by Jonathan Bachman, a New Orleans-based photographer who has been working for Reuters in the past few days.

The image shows a young woman in a dress standing calmly in front of two police officers wearing layers of armour, and appearing to approach her in a hurry.

The photograph was taken outside the Baton Rouge police headquarters, where most of Saturday's protest was focused.

"The police were called out to clear Airline Highway where demonstrators had blocked the road... They managed to get most of the protesters off to the side," Bachman told the BBC via email.

"I was on the side of the road photographing protesters arguing with police.

"I looked over my right shoulder and saw the woman step onto the road. She was making her stand. She said nothing and was not moving. It was clear that the police were going to have to detain her.

Her identity remains unknown to him, he says. Reuters reports she was later detained, but little more is known about her.

However, a nurse has claimed on Facebook to be the woman in the picture, and said she is "alive and safe".

Among the most prominent people to share the image on Facebook was Shaun King, a senior justice reporter with the New York Daily News newspaper with more than 560,000 followers.

One comment beneath his post, liked more than 3,300 times, called it a "legendary picture" that "will be in history and art books from this time".

The demonstration, organised by the civil rights group Black Lives Matter, took place days after police killed Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge. A video showed two white police officers holding him down and shooting him. Police said they had received a report an armed man was making threats.

Other notable figures online to share the image include Calestous Juma, a Kenyan-born professor at the John F Kennedy School of Government, who was once named among the 100 most influential Africans.