British police clashed with bottle-throwing protesters at a London tourist landmark early yesterday, overshadowing a peaceful march by more than 250,000 people against government spending cuts.
At least 214 people were arrested and 84 people were hurt when a small group of “criminal” demonstrators broke free from Saturday’s main rally, the biggest in the capital since protests against the Iraq war in 2003, which brought out 1 million demonstrators.
A group of several hundred masked rioters attacked the iconic Ritz Hotel, occupied a luxury food store, smashed up shops and banks, and started a bonfire in historic Trafalgar Square, before police finally contained them.
Photo: AFP
The original march called by unions on Saturday drew health workers, firefighters, teachers and their families, including children, to oppose the British coalition government’s austerity measures.
“I think it’s a game of two halves. Two hundred and fifty thousand people came to central London and protested peacefully,” Commander Bob Broadhurst of Scotland Yard, who led the police operation, told Sky News. “But what we have had, unfortunately, is a group of criminals, nothing to do with that march, who have decided to — on their own steam — attack buildings in central London and attack police officers.”
Several hundred black-clad protesters covering their faces with scarves hurled fireworks, gasoline bombs and paint at police, reporters said.
Clothes store Topshop and banks HSBC and Lloyds had their windows smashed, while some protesters hurled missiles at the five-star Ritz Hotel.
A group of protesters occupied luxury food store Fortnum and Mason and sprayed graffiti on the building until police sealed off the premises and arrested those coming out.
Police said officers came under “sustained attack” at Trafalgar Square, site of the famous Nelson’s Column and of four huge bronze lions. Rioters there were still throwing bottles at police into the early hours of yesterday.
Thirty-one police officers and 53 members of the public were injured in the violence, police said. Sixteen members of the public and 11 police needed hospital treatment.
About 4,500 police officers were deployed for the protest after several British student rallies descended into chaos last year, with one culminating in protesters damaging a car carrying Prince Charles and his wife Camilla.
The violent end to the rally came after its organizers, the Trades Union Congress (TUC), said between 250,000 and 300,000 people had protested peacefully earlier.
Public sector workers, students and pensioners waving signs which read “Don’t Break Britain” and “No To Cuts” thronged the streets of the capital.
TUC chief Brendan Barber said he “bitterly regretted” the violence and hoped it would not detract from the success of the march.
“I don’t think the activities of a few hundred people should take the focus away from the hundreds of thousands of people who have sent a powerful message to the government today,” he said.
The march started by the River Thames, and passed the Houses of Parliament and British Prime Minister David Cameron’s Downing Street residence, before ending in a rally in Hyde Park addressed by opposition Labour Party leader Ed Miliband.
“Our struggle is to fight to preserve, protect and defend the best of the services we cherish because they represent the best of the country we love,” Miliband told the rally.
After coming to power in May last year, the coalition announced £81 billion (US$131 billion) in cuts over five years to slash a record public deficit it blames on the previous Labour government.
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