A news van is flipped over as students and those in the community fill the streets and react after football head coach Joe Paterno was fired. (Getty Images/Patrick Smith)
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. -- Police in riot gear have confronted hundreds of Penn State students who took to the streets after the ouster of football coach Joe Paterno.
Crowds toppled a television news van and at least one photographer has been pelted with a rock.
The students flooded downtown State College on Wednesday night after Paterno and university President Graham Spanier were fired amid a growing furor linked to their handling of sex abuse allegations against a former assistant football coach.
Officers used pepper spray to control the crowd.
Some students chanted 'We want Joe! We want Joe!" Others kicked in the windows out of the toppled news van.
Paterno had announced earlier in the day he planned to retire after the season and expressed remorse for not having done more after he learned of the sex assault allegations.
The Associated Press