7 Arrested at UC Irvine Hunger Strike : Protest: Five of those held were in their 13th day of fasting over the dismantling of affirmative action. Officers move in after the students disobey an order to abandon camp.

IRVINE — Campus police clad in riot gear arrested five student hunger strikers and two other students Sunday for disobeying a police order to dismantle their 13-day-old tent encampment in front of UC Irvine’s administration building.

After being blocked briefly by a human chain of about 150 supporters about noon, campus police moved into the strikers’ tent encampment and arrested them without further incident. Police lifted them out of wheelchairs, handcuffed them and walked them to waiting police cars, according to university and eyewitness reports.

“It was pretty intense at first when everyone saw the cops,” said Adrian Neri, a spokesman for the United Front, the multiethnic UC Irvine student group that organized the hunger strike.

Supporters chanted slogans and Native American dancers pounded drums, he said, but “eventually things calmed down and it went OK.”

The hunger strikers, who began a liquids-only fast at midnight Oct. 17 to pressure the University of California to restore affirmative action programs, had been in violation of an agreement to abandon the encampment since midnight Friday.

University policy prohibits overnight camping, but the students had been granted permission to maintain the makeshift encampment for 10 days.

The hunger strikers--four UC Irvine students and one from Claremont Colleges--were cited on misdemeanor charges of failing to obey a police order and released from Orange County jail on Sunday, according to campus police. The five Latino men were “medically stable” at the time of their release, university officials said.

The five have vowed to continue the fast. The strikers will not seek to re-establish their encampment at UC Irvine, but will travel to Sacramento Tuesday to urge the regents to rescind their July vote to abolish affirmative action in the 162,000-student university system, Neri said.

“I’m psychologically drained at this point,” said striker Angel Cervantes, 23, a graduate student in history at Claremont Colleges. “We need to gather our strength to confront the regents now.”

Another of the strikers, 21-year-old UC Irvine student Juan Cazarez, has entered the early stages of liver and kidney damage from the fast, according to hunger strikers and university officials. Cazarez, who has lost 25 pounds from his 350-pound frame, said Sunday that “I’m just taking it one day at a time. The doctors said it’s not too serious or deadly right now.”

UC Irvine Vice Chancellor Manuel Gomez was given twice-daily medical reports about the strikers’ health, which was monitored by university medical staff.

Martha Gomez, who has been with her hunger-striking son Cesar Cruz, 21, since the fast began nearly two weeks ago, said: “I know he is right. I feel proud because they are so brave to do this.”

University officials were pleased at the peaceful arrest.

The two other hunger strikers are Manuel Galvan and Enrique Valencia, both 21.

The two other UC Irvine students arrested were Rogelio Galvan, 18, Galvan’s brother, and Ramiro Palomo, 25, of El Monte.

Times staff writer Greg Miller contributed to this report.