MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — A charity appearance by rap artist Ludacris at Montgomery Mall had to be stopped shortly after it began Thursday evening when the crowd became uncontrollable.

Ludacris donated $300 in toys to the WZHT Hot 105/Magic 97 13th annual Children of Christmas Campaign and was signing autographs and posing for pictures at the mall's newly-opened store Citi Gear.

Though scheduled for 2 hours, he was asked to leave by police after about 20 minutes when security could not control the crowd after two small fights broke out. Hundreds of people had been waiting for more than 30 minutes for the rapper to arrive, though exact crowd figures were not immediately available.

"I would have liked to stay, but I understand I was part of the problem," said Ludacris, a College Park, Ga., native. [...]

"They clearly weren't prepared for this or had no idea how big an artist he was," said Tiffany Jones, of Montgomery, who had brought her two children to see the rapper. "Security was inadequate, and it was an unsafe environment."